Fit to Buss
by MissBesanii
Summary: Ikari, hints of others - Dawn's liked Ash for a while now, but falls for ignorant, obsessive Paul when she finds a softer side. Things look ugly when Drew fights for her; can Ikari love pull through? T for heavy romance and dark suggestions. Complete.
1. Prologue

**Prologue.****  
**_By Besanii-Chan_

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**S**he had lost count how many times she had seen this argument, the only thing that varied was their vocabulary. She knew she was about to be shouted at because she was in the way, no matter how hard she tried to stay out of the way. So she had learnt to not bother. She waited for the up and coming challenge Ash was about to make, Paul would refuse, and after a few sarcastic comments from Ash they would suddenly start battling, and once again, he would end up defeated, or occasionally draw. Paul was always one step ahead of him, and they were both to stubborn to leave each other alone. Ash would then go in a sulk and take it out on her once Paul had left. Brock had also grown bored of it, but ended up refereeing the match anyway. A thought propped up in her head, and she smirked to herself, hopping up and stepping to Ash's side.

"I'm bored of watching, I'll challenge you this time." She said confidently, pulling a Pokeball from her belt.

Paul rolled his eyes; "And why would I waste my time on you?" She could feel herself getting warmer with a rage she had once learnt to control, she breathed heavily once, then smiled cheerfully; "Because it'll be different for you, and good training for both of us."

"No thanks, I don't need to battle a co-ordinator." He turned his back, and began to walk off. She could see Ash's fists balling up, and Pikachu scowling alongside him. She inhaled again; Deep Breathing… She instructed herself sternly, allowing herself to cleverly twist him.

"A Pokémon trainer should never decline a battle."

Such a small selection of words stopped him in his tracks, and she loved it. With her anger aside, she could persuade anyone. He sighed with his permanent scowl across his face, turning back around to face her, but looked to the floor in disgust.

"Fine. But if I win you leave me alone."

She smiled and nodded; "What if I win?"

"I'll leave you alone."

Ash looked at her with worry, and took a seat on a log nearby. Brock had perked up by this sudden change of regularity, and held his hands towards the both of them.  
"This is a One on One battle! Release your Pokémon."

"Mamoswine! Come on out!" She giggled as it materialized into a large hairy mammoth Pokémon. Paul sniggered and flicked a Pokeball too, calling on his Magmar for a quick and easy defeat.

Brock looked between them, Dawn nodding to signal she was ready. "Okay! Begin!" He shouted excitedly, and Magmar begun by jumping into the air. "Use Fire Blast." Paul perked up, thinking it would wipe an ice type with ease.

Dawn shook her head; "Ancient Power!" It did as told quickly, and pulled the rocks in the way of the fire. "Take down!" She waved, the rocks smashing towards Magmar and Mamoswine following. "Fire punch," Paul said calmly, which the Pokémon obeyed swiftly and landing on Mamoswine's head. It countered instinctively with a flick of its tusks, sending Magmar flying. "Ice shard!" She squealed, growing extremely excited.

"Dodge and use Cross Chop." It did as it was told, jumping on the shard and using it to push towards Mamoswine, who held its tusk in front which ended as Magmar coming off worse. "Now dig and use ancient power!" With the Rocks that passed from behind it because of the dig, it threw the rocks towards Magmar with Ancient power to trap it and came up from underneath to send it smashing towards the previous attack. "That's it!" Dawn squealed with delight that her new combination had worked. Magmar pulled itself up steadily after a few words of warning from its trainer.

"Fire Blast while it recovers." Paul grumbled, obviously threatened and backed into a corner. His prediction was correct though, and Mamoswine roared in agony.

"Finish it with Fire Punch." He waved his hand half heartedly, feeling no need to make an effort. Of course, it landed and to Dawn's despair, Mamoswine could not take two large fire attacks consecutively, no matter how bulky it was. She sighed and smiled as she returned her recently trained Pokémon, muttering how it had done so well and it deserved a rest. Paul raised an eyebrow, which all four knew was enough to show the pleasure he was experiencing. He flicked his nose up snootily, and walked away.

"Dawn, I…" Ash began, only to be stopped by Brock. "No need to worry!" She turned to face them frowning back at her; "Mamoswine was amazing, and put up a really good fight against a fire type! With a little work we'll go a long way together. You'll see." She assured them, nodding her head knowingly. Brock nodded proudly; "That's the spirit! But for now, let's eat." He unpacked his utensils and food supplies, and Ash jumped up excitedly; "I'm starved! I think I might go practice a few attacks with Pikachu to really build up an appetite!" He smiled; "You coming Dawn?" He looked over expectantly, Pikachu hopping onto his shoulder and looking over with an extremely similar glance. She shook her head; "No thanks, I think I might go take a walk."

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So it might not be very long for a Prologue, but I promise I will make some big chapters.  
This is my first Fanfiction on here, and I thought I'd start with an Ikarishipping, (I have already written one and loved it, so thought I'd try again.) I'm not sure whether I'm the style you like around here, and if I can improve or change my style for you let me know and I'll give it a shot. I hope you all take to my writing though as I do enjoy writing and people enjoy reading it. My updates may not be regular, but I refuse to quit a job until it is finished, unless of course you don't like it. ^^'  
So Comments and Critism would be good, not to harsh though! :)


	2. Awkward mornings

Wow, thanks for your kind comments, I feel really welcomed and not so nervous with trying to impress. ^^'

I will continue this as frequently as possible, so please keep checking!

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**Chapter One**

She slumped down onto a picnic bench not too far from the camp they had set up. Although she was oddly optimistic, her self-doubt never failed to overtake and question herself. "Oh Piplup…" She sighed, her tiny penguin Pokémon staring up blankly, its eyes brimming with happiness. "I wanted to impress him so much."

"Pip?" It tilted its head in confusion, but allowed her to continue her thoughts. "I wanted to show him I'm not just some coordinator he happened to bump into…"

"Pi-Pipluplup." It chattered in its sweet high pitched tone, clearly irritated by Dawn's worry. She giggled carelessly; "You're not helping Piplup." She put him down on the floor and stood up, balling a fist by her chest ; "I'm going to make sure it never happens again! Or at least, I put up the hardest fight not to." She added on the end, biting her fingernail as she did so. Piplup lifted its chest proudly, agreeing with her without a thought, but stopped and sat down as its stomach rumbled. Dawn giggled again, crouching down to pick him up and ran back to the campsite.

"Dawn you've been gone for ages!" Brock smiled, pouring out a bowlful of soup for her and setting it on the table. Piplup wiggled to get down and ran over to the readily prepared bowl for it, scoffing them happily. Ash had already dug in, and didn't feel the need to talk, 'less talking more eating,' as he would say. She sat opposite him, and rested her head in her palm, sighing as she did so. It was a while before Brock noticed she was merely stirring the soup and it had not yet touched her lips. "That's not like you Dawn, is there something wrong?" Ash looked up from his food, then began waving his spoon around as he talked; "Don't let him get to you Dawn, you did a lot better than I could have done with that matchup." She smiled feebly, and flinched as a splatter of cream hit her. Ash immediately started laughing; "Ha, I'm sorry Dawn, here." He offered her a handkerchief, which she took gratefully and wiped her cheek. "I'd hurry up and eat that Dawn, it'll go cold." She knew he was hinting, and didn't have the heart to argue; "Oh, I'm not really hungry, you have it." She pushed to bowl and he gladly accepted it; "Sorry Brock." She added, only to receive an odd look from him.

"It's not just that battle is it?" She was taken back from his observant ways, but she knew she was a better actress. "Nahh, I'm just a little tired now, and I lost my appetite from that walk."

"How!?" Ash gasped, looking at her as if he had just been offended. She laughed; "Just because your stomach controls your brain doesn't mean it's the same for everyone else." He frowned; "Well actually, I'm battle focused, and you have to eat to stay in tip top shape. So my training controls me." He nodded proudly, and continued to eat triumphantly. Dawn rolled her eyes, to find Buneary eyeing Pikachu as she washed her ears. She pulled up her other hand to share the weight of her increasingly heavy head, pouting slightly and blinking slowly as she grew more tired.

She felt an arm around her waist, making her jump slightly and look up. "You fell asleep, let's get you into your tent." Ash said quietly, as he led her around the sleeping Pokémon. It was dark now, and the only light was the campfire and Chimchar, who was still awake and following Brock around so he could see. She allowed herself to rest on Ash's shoulder, closing her eyes and trusting him to lead her. She heard the unzipping of her tent, and he carefully placed her inside, wrapping her in her sleeping bag. He took off her bandanna and clips so they didn't dig in through the night, and placed them in her bag. She opened her eyes slightly; "Thank you."

"You're welcome. G'night." He whispered, crawling back out and zipping the tent. "Ash?" She sat up, and watched the zip slide up again; "Yeah?"

"Nothing, good night." She sighed, falling onto her back as he closed up the zip again. It took her a couple of seconds to realise Piplup had also come into the tent, and stood on her stomach. "Pip." It smirked at her, folding its flippers. Dawn rolled onto her side, causing Piplup to fall over.

"Go to sleep Piplup."

---

She woke earlier than usual, seeing as she had enough sleep at the table. Piplup was snoring gently, surrounded by the sleeping bag it had pulled away from Dawn. The heat from the summer sun radiated through the tent, and the air was humid, so she decided to have a change to her usual daily doings. She sat up, pulling at her hair with a brush as she untangled the knots caused by her restless sleep. She sighed, pulling her hair back into a pony tail instead of her usual style, and rubbed on some lip balm to stop her lips from chapping. She changed into her yellow swimsuit, and left her tent up for Piplup, walking out and heading towards the small lake nearby. She hung her towel loosely over her arm and listened to the soothing sound of Starly singing sweetly.

She stopped in her tracks as she reached the edge of the lake, to find none other than Paul sat at the other side's edge, obviously there to wake himself up just as she was. He turned and spotted her, his glare making her feel tiny. She smiled awkwardly; "Oh, I err… I-oh..." She stopped herself to regain her confidence. "Sorry, I'll just be off." She shuffled backwards and dropped her head low as she turned to hurry off.

_Oh dear, how embarrassing… _She cringed as she reached the camp, opening her eyes to find everyone awake.

"Where've you been!?" Ash looked up from his bag packing. She snorted and looked down at herself; "Where do you think I've been?"

Ash frowned; "Well you don't look very wet." Pikachu nodded; "Pika pika…" It had now resorted to making Ash's shoulder a permanent perch due to Buneary's attachment.

"Well I changed my mind." She shrugged simply, entering her tent to get changed. It was a matter of minutes before Ash was shouting impatiently from outside; "Get a move on Dawn! We'd like to set off before it gets dark!" She then heard him scowl an 'ouch' and assumed Brock had either threw something or elbowed him to be quiet. Piplup sighed furiously as it was woken, and Dawn packed away the sleeping bag, then pressed a button outside the tent which closed it and folded away neatly.

"Girls…" Ash continued his sulk, only to be warned gently by Brock. "Don't even go there." Dawn snapped and walked on ahead, Piplup waddling after her quickly.

"Will you two quit it?" Brock sighed. "He started it." Dawn mumbled childishly.

"You're acting like three year olds." He continued, Ash staying silent. The silence continued over them all, and their journey to the city was awkward.

They arrived, and looked at each other blankly, Ash speaking up first; "I'm going to work with Gliscor for a bit. A ground type will be good against the next gym." Brock nodded; "I'll go get us a room and them come to help you practice." They both looked to Dawn, who sighed and walked off, giving them no clue of where she was going, mainly because she wasn't sure either. She wandered through the busy city, reaching a large market place brimming with all sorts of Pokémon accessories. From hats to Pokeballs, Poketchs to Berries and Poffins.

"Excuse me Miss." A man called out to her, he wore scruffy jeans and a blue polo neck shirt. She turned and walked over, looking up at his face which seemed so far away as he was extremely tall. "You look like you need cheering up." He smiled down at her, and she nodded back. He reached out for her hand and she opened it slowly, and he placed a filled fist on top of her palm, then dropped several tiny stickers. "There, you can use them for contests."

She perked up; "How do you know I do contests?" He smiled; "I've been rooting for you for a while now, I picked you out in the Floaroma Contest, and when you won I carried on watching you. You're an inspiration to my daughter."

She blushed; "Wow, thank you sir." She managed to say, her face brightening up at the thought of inspiring people. "It's an honour to meet you Dawn."

_He knows my name! _She beamed at the man, and looked down to the seals; "These are all really new!" The man nodded at her; "Yes, only the best for you, and I'll be so proud when I see you use them at the Grand Festival! I know you'll do well." She bowed her head and said her farewells, her cheeks still rosy red. She pulled out her seal purse and packed them away, eager to use them as soon as possible. However, she found herself lost in such a busy town, people shoving into her as they hurried to buy their supplies. She found a bridge which led her to the beach, north of the city and collapsed onto the soft, warm sands.

With nothing but the gentle sound of breaking waves on the tip of the land, she released her Piplup, Buneary and Pachirisu to let them run around. Mamoswine was not a big fan of such warm places, and with Ambipom left in training, she felt a little lonely; or lonelier than she could have been.

_One more ribbon and we're in the Grand Festival. _"We can do it, right guys?" The Pokémon stopped and took a second to register what she was talking about, but eventually agreed happily.

"There she is!" the gruff voice of a distant Brock shouted, she turned her head and couldn't see them, so she frowned. "Up here!" Ash's voice joined in, and she obeyed to find them waving upon a bridge. She returned her Pokémon and walked up to the bridge. Staraptor was sent down to help her up, to avoid any confusion as she had already been lost and didn't want to risk it again.

"You've got to stop going off like that. You've been gone hours! We were beginning to worry." Brock told her as Ash was thanking and returning his bird Pokémon. "Yeah, and sorry about before… You know how impatient I can get." He trailed off, scratching the back of his head, which she had come to learn as his way of showing embarrassment. "That's okay, I haven't exactly been cheerful recently, but I was given a load of seals today by a fan of mine!" She began to squeal as she ended her sentence, and they both smiled back at her. "That's great Dawn! Right about now May was getting her fans too so you're right on track!"

Dawn's face dropped. _Oh. Her… _She thought, she didn't dislike the girl, but there was something about her that made Dawn jealous, almost threatened, and hated the thought of being just a replacement. She didn't want to be on track, she wanted to be soaring ahead and become the top coordinator, which she knew May had not yet accomplished.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud growl of her stomach, and she clutched it as her face went red; "I guess I'm hungry, I haven't eaten all day…" Brock laughed at her, and jolted his head backwards to summon the two to follow him so he could make food, which neither were foolish enough to disobey.

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So yeah, I know it's boring at the moment, but it really will kick in soon. I promise!


	3. Confession and Rejection

**Chapter Two**

Once happily full and satisfied, Dawn had set out to making use of the Pokémon Center. Once her Pokémon had trained, she bathed her Pokémon fully and groomed them until not a knot was left in their fur, including Mamoswine who took some time. She then relaxed them with scents and a dimly lit room to ready them for the next day; the Sunyshore Contest.

"Night guys, relax and don't stir until morning, okay?" She whispered, to be replied with several grunts of Pokémon voices. She closed the door quietly and turned to find Ash in her face; "Me and Brock are tired, we're going to call it a day too."

She nodded in agreement, walking after him to their room. It was quite small, with a single bed and bunk beds on the other side. A small space between them to walk was practically the only space in the room. Pikachu claimed the bed underneath the bunk for himself and Ash, and Brock was already lay on the top, so she retreated to the spare once changed into her nightwear.

"Lights out?" Brock asked, and Dawn nodded, leaning over to the lamp on a small desk. "Night then you two."

"Good night." Dawn replied quietly, only to be replied with the loud snore coming from the bottom bunk…

It wasn't long before Brock was adding to Ash and his Pokémon's now lighter breathing, and Dawn found herself overheating as she stared blankly at the ceiling. She rubbed her aching head which pulsed with tiredness. She repeatedly twisted and turned until she couldn't lie there anymore. She sat up, throwing her quilt off herself. She heard one of the others sit up quickly, and assumed it to be Ash as he bumped his head on the top bunk's support. "Ash?" She whispered, barely making a sound, but enough to reply. She heard him grunt slightly, still groggy from being woken with such a force. "I can't sleep." She carried on, and it took a couple of moments for a reply as he came to terms with being awake.

"Okay, let's go get a warm drink, shake our legs and you might be able to drop off after that." She heard him move carefully, obviously avoiding the disturbance of Pikachu, which he had come to learn could only end in tears; particularly for himself. She felt him grab her arm, slowly winding down to find her hand to lead her out the door. Their eyes throbbed as they entered the lit room were Nurse Joy was working hard. She usually slept in the early morning, a time where it was very unlikely someone would get up to battle, whereas it was very usual for people to battle at night. She looked up at them and frowned; "What are you doing!?" She scolded, taking a look at their contact, which they let go of quickly. "I can't sleep." She giggled nervously, glancing at Ash who was nodding quickly. Joy smiled sweetly; "Hot Milk should do the trick. I'll be there in a second, sit, sit!" They did as they were told quietly, and silence fell between them, whether it be through lack of sleep or not. She struggled to look at him, but he wasn't the most observant person whilst fully awake, so she didn't worry about him noticing her blushing. She soon entered with two glasses of steaming Miltank Milk, with straws to make it easier while their bodies were on 'autopilot.'

"Thanks Nurse Joy." She yawned, stretching her arms as Ash handed her the glasses. Joy smiled once more, then yawned herself and shooed them to bed, watching as they pulled themselves up the stairs. They reached their room, and Dawn stopped; "Thanks Ash, it really helped…"

She then did something she never would have thought of doing when wide awake and able to think things through properly. She leaned over to him, pressing her smooth lips gently onto his, lingering at his side a second. She saw him flinch and his eyes widen, and after a couple of seconds he moved back; "Dawn… I-" She already knew by his facial expression what he was about to say, and her heart felt like it had gained so much weight and dropped onto her lung, causing her to hold her breath in the vain hope that he would say something different. "You're a really sweet girl, and a great co-ordinator, but I already think I'm in love with someone else and I-" She shook her head and held her fingers on his lips to stop him talking. "I don't mind. I just wanted to know what it was like, and in all honesty, you disappointed me..."

She took to her bed quickly before he could reply, listening to him shuffle in his too. It took a while to hear him snore again, but he did eventually. If she was honest with herself, it was the best feeling she had ever felt to that point, and this feeling was what she thought to be the worst. It felt like time had stopped to drag it on as long as possible and thinking about it only intensified the pain. She cried silently to the wall she lay by, curled in a ball as she finally drifted to sleep in exhaustion.

---

She woke up quite late that day, which gave her another hour to make up for the lack of time she had in the evening before. She found herself in a surprisingly good mood, and surrounded by Piplup, Pachirisu and Buneary, her Mamoswine outside the room. They greeted her loudly, and followed her down the stairs.

"Good morning Dawn!" Brock shouted from the kitchen, a sweet smell of honey drifting through to her. "Good morning Brock, smells good!" She giggled, jumping into her usual place opposite Ash. He stared at the table quietly, his cap hiding whatever facial expression he was showing. She tilted her head to see and he glanced at her, quickly changing back to the table again. "Aren't you excited for today? I just have to get my final ribbon, then I'll be in the Grand Festival!" She balled her fists with determination, and the tone of her voice seemed to have woke Ash up. "Yeah, I know you'll do it." He said, attempting enthusiasm but failing miserably. "Well you don't sound like it." She grumbled, pouting slightly.

_What's he so choked up about!? He hasn't got to live with this ache. _She thought to herself, sighing without realising she did so. Thankfully, Buneary woke her up from her thoughts, by jumping onto the table; "Bun!" The trainers jumped with surprise, and Pikachu backed up to the edge of the table, bumping into the wall it was stood by. Buneary cornered him, but Pikachu had walked to one side to far and toppled off the edge of the table. The Pokémon erupted with laughter, Pikachu sweating with embarrassment, and Buneary tackling him from the top of the table to hug him whilst giggling loudly. The hug didn't last too long, as Dawn picked up her Buneary; "We need to practice after breakfast, after all you're my appeal partner. So save your energy please." She smiled, tapping her Rabbit Pokémon's nose lightly to make it giggle.

"Pancakes in the morning for Dawn's big day!" Brock came in with several plates of pancakes, then had to go back for more for the Pokémon. They all thanked him and devoured quickly, the taste of honey and sugar making their taste buds go wild.

"Right, let's go Buneary; the rest can wait here right?" The other Pokémon agreed. "Okay, thanks Brock they were amazing!" She skipped out alongside her Buneary, who was happily hopping too.

It hit them; a silver ball came from nowhere exploding to separate the two. "Buneary! Ice beam!" Dawn yelled, pulling herself up to stand. The small Pokémon fired into the bushes where it had come from, freezing them with ease. "Now dizzy punch!" The ice smashed with a flick of Buneary's ears, revealing a Bronzong who floated closer to them. It flicked itself back to fire a hyper beam from its hollow bottom, the beam getting bigger and holding back until it exploded towards the two. "Ice beam! Hold it back!" Dawn panicked, the beams colliding but the ice beam wasn't strong enough. They flew onto their back from the force, but Buneary had weakened it slightly, and so was still able to fight. "Dizzy punch!"

She knew Bronzong couldn't move for a while now, and that ice wouldn't have much of an effect on it, and so her only chance was physical attacks. It crashed into the floor, but after a couple of moments it fired another Gyro Ball. Buneary spun around it, and then bounced on it to knock its balance out as it hovered. Its heavy bottom kept swinging and Buneary punched it several times with its glowing ears, but it was too strong to have much of a result. It eventually managed to stop itself from swinging, and made an echoic noise in its hollow inside, and a red glow emitted from the bottom, chasing after Buneary. "That's Hypnosis!" Dawn warned, but it was too late, Buneary was asleep.

"Buneary!" She pleaded, watching helplessly as Bronzong tilted onto its back again, another hyper beam building up. Buneary lay silently, snoozing in a heavy sleep. It fired and she found herself running towards her Pokémon, curling around it and allowing the Pokémon to attack her instead.

Black.


	4. Knight with cold armour

**Chapter Three**

She felt her hair being pulled to sit her up; she grunted at the pain and opened her eyes slowly. Several people were staring down at her, all wearing funny green wigs she recognised to be Team Galactic. One of their leaders walked into the room with his Toxicroak at his side.

"I see you met Bronzong, you will remember it as Bronzor." His voice was monotonous, yet she could tell through the look in his eyes that he was enjoying talking down at her.

"We met." She grumbled, frowning and scowling at him. "Where's Buneary!?" She raised her voice, beginning to stand up, but was pushed back down by Toxicroak, who held its palm near her chest, its knuckle claw seeping poison near her face. "I'd stay where you are if I were you." Saturn closed his eyes snootily, then opened them to glare at her; "We still need you to do something for us before you go hurting yourself."

"Where's Buneary?" She growled, staying extremely still as she did so. Saturn shrugged; "I'm not sure, we left your pathetic Pokémon where it battled, and we're far away from there now."

Inside, she wanted to cry out for help and her Buneary to be safe, but she knew if she cried she would be weakening herself in front of a Galactic Admin. "What do you want then?" She spat, Toxicroak's hand moving away from her.

"Legend has it there are three Pokémon, each controlling very significant things that we want. And you're the closest thing we have to one of them. So is your friend. Commander Mars has already dealt with him and his tag along." He smirked evilly, watching her face flicker slightly. "How do y-"

"And I have come to understand which one you're linked to; the being of emotion, Mesprit. And so, in order for it to reappear, we'll have to push your emotions to the extreme." He circled her, his smile widening at the thought; "Of course, we couldn't make you happy when you've been locked away here, and so there's only really one other emotion strong enough."

He left it to her imagination, and she knew she wasn't going to enjoy it. He clicked his fingers and a grunt to his left shoulder smirked. Saturn walked out with his Toxicroak smugly, slamming the door and locking it behind him. She slid up the wall to stand, walking into the corner as he got closer. "It's a good thing you're a pretty one, or else this would be no fun."

She gulped heavily at the thought; "What are you going to do?" As he squared up to her, she thought for a moment he was going to beat her, he was so big and she was in no way strong enough to hit back. Instead his clammy hand reached to her stomach, pulling at her top so she tripped against him. His other hand wrapped around her so she couldn't move, and she pushed her arms against his chest so she could push her head away from him. She cringed as he caressed her face with the back of his fingers, then kissed her neck hungrily, only stopping at the sound of something crashing outside. She took the chance to push him away, but he grabbed onto her shirt, ripping it a lot. He pulled her back with the remaining attachment of cloth, slapping her face to make her yell out in pain. She dropped to her knees and held her cheek as it burnt to a bright red. "You will regret the day you tried to escape from me."

"And you'll regret the day you tried to rape a helpless girl." A voice she had not once hoped to hear had answered her prayers, and his face was revealed as the grunt dropped to the floor, unconscious.

"It's just a good job I found you." His voice grunted, as he crouched down to her level. She was shaking in the corner of the room, her palm still cupping her hot cheek, the other arm covering her bare stomach. "Are you alright?" He asked, though his voice didn't sound too concerned. She nodded, whimpering slightly. He sighed; "Here." She was given his jacket to wrap around her, and helped up. To her disbelief, she found herself being comfortable in a boy's arms who she usually despised. They followed many corridors, where a couple of Paul's Pokémon accompanied them, on guard for any grunts who may have attacked. "How did you find me?" She asked, as they found an exit Paul must have already crashed open as the guards were collapsed on the floor. "I heard an explosion and went to follow it, and spotted your Buneary against a Bronzong, I knew you didn't stand a chance and so got my Honchkrow to follow." She nodded, deciding not to kick up a fuss about his dig at her Pokémon, seeing as he had just saved her; "What about Buneary?"

"Hariyama took it to the Pokémon center, it's not too far."

She sighed with relief; "Thank you." She couldn't think of any other words to say, but her eyes filled with tears of gratitude, only making him sigh angrily; "There's no need to cry about it. It's fine."

She flinched slightly, unaccustomed to the lack of sympathy; "Sorry…" She mumbled, blinking rapidly to force back the tears. Before she realised, she had reached the Pokémon center, still wrapped in Paul's coat and his arm around her shoulder to direct her. He stiffened and let go of her quickly, walking over to Nurse Joy; "We need a room each to stay in if you could please Miss."

"I'm not staying, I have to go." Dawn said bluntly; "I have to go find Ash, he's being tortured too."

Nurse Joy couldn't help but interrupt; "Miss, if I may, what do you mean by 'too?' Have you been attacked?"

Paul nodded; "By Team Galactic, they wanted something that she possesses." Dawn nodded, slightly miffed at his distant third person narrative as he spoke about her; "My friend also has a link, and so they've got him too, if I can could I take Buneary so I can go and find him?"

Nurse Joy shook her head; "I'm phoning Officer Jenny, she can sort out an operation to save your friend, and she'll also come and question you." Dawn sighed, nodding in defeat. She left Joy to make the call, and Paul had sat down to wait for them. "You should go get changed." He instructed coldly, clearly wanting his jacket back. She nodded, thanking him again then running up to her room. She changed into her Contest dress, binning her favourite top which was now barely anything. She stopped at the balcony overlooking the waiting area where Paul was sat, and to her surprise, he was petting her Buneary gently, until he noticed her looking, then continued to stare at the floor as always.

She sat opposite him, her Buneary springing over and greeting her happily, then settled down to rest some more. Paul consistently found something interesting in the floor, not bothering to look up.

"Why do you do that?" She spoke up, making him look up. "Do what?" He asked sharply, emphasizing the plosives as he usually did. He looked back down again, smirking slightly. "That. Looking down at people, it's really big headed." She stopped herself, remembering what he had done for her. "Maybe it's for another reason." He raised his voice as he stood; she rolled her eyes then continued to glare at him; "Like what?"

"Did it never occur to you that I might be shy? Or nervous?" She laughed; "No Paul, because you're always so confident."

"Because I want what's best for my Pokémon." He growled, only to be snapped back at; "So it's all just an act then?"

He turned to walk out; "I don't know why I'm telling you this. I save you and you go and insult me."

"I know I'm sorry." She stopped herself, she couldn't understand why she couldn't control herself sooner, but the rush of guilt had kicked in, and she couldn't bare feeling so mean. "Please don't go, I want to repay you somehow."

"No you don't, you want me at your side so I can be your free personal bodyguard." He spat at her, walking out the door. She hurried after him but bumped into him as he stood right outside. "You must be Dawn; I hear you've had a traumatic day." Paul stepped aside to reveal Officer Jenny, who was staring sympathetically at her. They were bother followed into the Pokémon center, and sat down in Nurse Joy's private room.

"So Dawn, it was Commander Saturn who took you?" Officer Jenny was scribbling onto a notebook quickly. Dawn nodded; "and Commander Mars has Ash and Brock."

"Why is that?" She looked up from her pad, waiting patiently. "Because me and Ash have seen two of the legendary trio."

Paul looked up, suddenly interested as Officer Jenny stared in disbelief. "Did you find out which ones?"

Dawn continued to nod; "Cynthia told me I saw Mesprit's soul because I saw it in Lake Verity. Ash was told he saw Azelf's soul in Lake Valor."

Jenny picked up her phone and began pressing buttons and held it up to her ear; "Send your force in search for Team Galactic; I fear they're harming two children there."

Dawn bit her lip anxiously as Jenny put down her phone and carried on scribbling into her book. She finished, then looked up at Dawn ready to ask more questions; "So you were attacked to the point where you were unconscious, and woke to find yourself where?"

Dawn shuddered, allowing Paul to answer; "She was locked in a cell with a grunt who was attacking her."

"And they did that to you?" Jenny looked at her bruised neck, the purple colour starting to show through. Dawn nodded slowly, slightly ashamed of herself.

"And did he… You know, touch you?" Jenny looked awkward as she tried to tip toe around the question. "No." Dawn said plainly, shaking her head quickly.

"He was damn close though." Paul spat, his face was going red with fury. Jenny looked at him; "But you helped her in time?" He nodded and calmed slightly, and Jenny scrawled more words onto her pad. She closed the top and smiled; "Well I'm glad you're both safe, and I'm afraid you both might be targeted by Team galactic so I'd like you to stay in the Pokémon center until we have everything under control."

"What!?" Dawn shouted; "I have to get to my contests! The Grand Festival is in two weeks!"

"We'll be done within two weeks I can assure you." Jenny nodded to assure her. Paul snorted; "I wouldn't count on it." He said under his breath so she couldn't hear, but Dawn could. She shot a glare at him, but he continued to smirk at the floor. Jenny bowed her head and walked out to leave them in silence.

"Paul?" Dawn said quietly, gaining his eye contact for a while; "Why did you save me?" He frowned; "Because you needed help. Why do you ask stupid questions?" She ignored this and continued to be calm; "But why? I thought you hated me." He looked back down to the floor; "Because you're a girl. And hate is a strong word." She sighed slightly, holding in her anger for his comment. "You were at an unfair disadvantage, and I _hate_ that."

"I thought you said hate is a strong word." She smirked, thinking she'd caught him tripping over his words.

"Exactly." He got up and went for the door; "I'm going to get some food, are you hungry?"

She perked up, nodding and running after him, Buneary hopping after her. She walked into the kitchen, rummaging through her bag and pulling out a box of different berries.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he peered over her shoulder, the stove he was using was already bubbling. She smiled; "I'm making Poffins for your Pokémon as a thanks!"

"They don't need them-" He began, but Dawn interrupted him; "What they want and need are two different things, you'll be surprised how much their performance improves when they've ate them."

He rolled his eyes; "My Pokémon don't perform."

She had already begun placing the berries in and stirring; "You know what I mean, as in how they battle." He didn't respond, and continued to cook. She sighed; "I know exactly what your Gliscor will like, and I can make Poffins for your Electabuzz similar to Pikachu's…"

"Spare me the details, please." He begged, and then there was silence.


	5. Escapology

**Sorry it's taken so long to update, I keep writing tiny bits and getting stumped. It's not writer's block exactly, because I knew what to write, I just couldn't find the right words to make it dramatic enough.**

**Shh Besanii, get on with the writing. :P**

**Chapter 4**

"Wow that looks amazing!" Dawn complimented as Paul dished up. He turned and looked at her Poffins; "And they look pink." He said with a hint of disgust in his tone. She gritted her teeth into a smile; "That's because I used red berries." He nodded to humour her, then walked into the dining area, placing their food on opposite sides of the table, clearly to keep her away from him. She placed all the bowls on the floor and looked at Paul expectantly. "You're Pokémon have to be out to eat." Buneary had already hopped over and began devouring hers.

He rolled his eyes and threw his pokeballs heartlessly. She smiled at the materializing Pokémon, who looked at her awkwardly. "I made you some Poffins! Dig in, if you don't like them, tell me and I can alter the next batch!" They looked to Paul nervously, but he ignored them and started to eat. "You can eat, I say so." She smiled, and they all picked them up and began to nibble. She saw Gliscor's face light up and began scoffing them quickly, as did Magmar's, Hariyama's, Electabuzz's and Ursaring's, all except his Honchkrow; who refused to eat. "What's wrong?"

"Honchkrow knows who you are and is still sour from defeat." She nodded, understanding that the defeat was the Poke ringer contest. "No need to beat yourself up about it, you'll do better next time. Eat!" She sat down as it watched her, and then looked to Paul who was watching carefully. It shivered under his stare and leant down to eat. It took a small bite and stood up to taste it. "It's good right?" She realised she hadn't ate any of her food yet, but continued to watch Honchkrow, who did not give her eye contact.

"Don't be rude!" Paul snapped, banging his fist on the table. Dawn and the Pokémon jumped, Honchkrow looking at Dawn with wide eyes and nodding.

"Paul!" She shouted at him, glaring at him as he stared back. "That's no way to treat your Pokémon!"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, I asked for Honchkrow's." She was taken aback by his harshness, which he continued in a blind rage; "Are you going to eat that or have I wasted another hour of my day on you?" She turned to sit straight in her chair, slightly intimidated as she stabbed into the potato.

"Krow…" It said quietly, happily eating the Poffins. She could see from the corner of her eye that Buneary was watching carefully, but couldn't risk attacking Paul with six of his Pokémon surrounding her. She didn't dare look over, and forced herself to eat all of the food he had prepared. It wasn't a chore though; it was on a par to Brock's cooking.

"Thank you, that was delicious." She said bluntly, taking his plate as well as her own. She washed them furiously enough to cut herself, and she sucked her finger as it bled. "Bun?" She hopped onto the side, and looked at her finger, which had a long scratch across. "It's alright, just stings a bit."

"Here." Her finger was pinched and pulled towards him, making her hiss as her finger pulsed. "It might be infected." He began wiping it roughly with a small wet cloth which had been dampened with cleaner that stung in the cut. There was an awkward silence between them as he looked at what he was doing. His soft hand gripped tightly onto her wrist, as he dabbed at it until the bleeding stopped. "Sorry I snapped at you." Dawn sighed, she hated apologising. "Same here." He grunted; "I guess I have to put up with you until this dies down, so there's no point in arguing." Although his words sounded rude, she didn't feel offended, because it summed up her thoughts too. He rummaged through the first aid and pulled out a large plaster which looked like it was supposed to be for grazes on knees, not a small finger. She laughed at it; "I haven't lost my finger, it's only a cut."

"It's all they have. It'll do for now." He grabbed onto her hand again and began wrapping it around until the ends stuck. She watched him care for her and eventually realised what was happening. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, you should go to bed. You haven't had the best of days." He looked at her neck to confirm it, no plaster could heal the mental pain she didn't know how she was pushing aside. She nodded back at him; "I'm so worried about Ash and Brock…"

"They'll be fine." Paul said quickly and bluntly, appearing not to care, instead he walked out of the kitchen carefree and returned his Pokémon.

---

She lay there; once again she couldn't sleep, this time because the nightmare kept occurring. She sighed and sat up, rubbing her neck which was patterned with purple and blue. She through off her quilt and shuffled out of the room, making her way to the room next door. She knocked it quietly, and she heard a thump and a grunt as footsteps grew closer. The door pulled open sharply, making her flinch. Paul stood there rubbing his head, letting her assume he had been startled out of his sleep and fell off the bed. She found herself blushing as she looked at his bare torso, and blinked to snap herself awake.

"What do you want?" He grumbled, although it sounded like a whine. She twiddled her fingers around each other, shuffling where she stood awkwardly. "I can't sleep." She looked at his sleepy eyes, which didn't seem to impressed. "So? What do you want me to do?"

"Oh." The only word she managed to let out, she wasn't used to such treatment. "Sorry I woke you." She whispered, as he grunted again and slammed the door shut. She stood there for a moment, staring blankly at the door, astounded. Her jaw hung loosely, dumbstruck. She had no idea what to do with herself, and eventually forced herself to walk her room again. She sat on her bed, crossing her legs and placing her hands in her lap. She stared at the wall opposite her, the wall which kept Paul away from her. It was an odd sensation she felt, she couldn't describe it fully, but the closest was between hatred and confusion. Thinking about it alone made her exhausted, and took her mind off the day's events, so she finally managed to drop off.

---

It was ironic how she woke. 'Knock Knock.' It turned into a wave of repetitive taps until she managed to reach the door, which she opened to Paul scowling at her. "They're here." He pushed his way into her room. "Get changed, we have to go." He made his way to her window, pulling two Pokeballs off his belt, "Gliscor, Honchkrow." He said sharply, watching the two red beams shape into his Pokémon and dim to reveal them. She had already hurried into the bathroom, and changed into her dress again. She scraped her hair back into a messy pony tail, as they were going to fly. Her heart was racing faster than she was hurrying to get her belongings together, and Paul had already ordered his Hariyama holding the door shut from Galactic grunts. "Come on, we don't have time!" Paul shouted at her, and she nodded, lifting her bag onto her shoulder. He helped her onto his Honchkrow, and he stood onto Gliscor's tail, which was propped up for him. "Ready?" He looked at Honchkrow, who nodded, and then held out a pokeball towards Hariyama, allowing a rush of Galactic members into her room.

"What about Nurse Joy?" She shouted over the winds. "They won't bother with her, they're after you." All she could do was hope he was right, she looked back to check and saw a Crobat speeding towards them. Her first instincts were to release Piplup, but instead she could only grab onto Buneary's Pokeball, which was even better. "Ice Beam!" She yelled, and the Pokémon complied, shooting the Pokémon down with ease. She nodded with praise at her Pokémon, but spotted a light flashing constantly out of the trees they were flying over. "Paul! They have an electric type!" She was worried for Honchkrow, who was wearing out quickly. He didn't reply, and she looked to find him fighting off a Yanmega. "Ice beam again!" Gliscor wobbled out of the way as Yanmega was blasted backwards, but it continued to attack, firing an ancient power at Gliscor. Without thinking, Gliscor blocked with its tail, causing Paul to drop. Gliscor realised this when it was too late, and the hesitation caused it to be hit, and began to plummet to the ground too. "Dive Honchkrow!" She yelled at the top of her voice, pushing at its neck to make it obey. It didn't hesitate, and began speeding up with gravity at its aid, she managed to reach Paul, grabbing onto his arm as Honchkrow flapped its wings to slow them down. Paul touched the floor first, and Dawn tumbled off holding Buneary as Honchkrow rolled on the floor in exhaustion. He returned both of his Pokémon and turned to find a Luxray glaring at them. She stood up and backed up slightly, Buneary stepping in front of her.

"Now what?" She worried, as Galactic Grunts and a red headed Admin ran towards them. She knew very well they couldn't hide from a Luxray, a Pokémon who's eyes could see through the thickest of walls. "Ice beam! Then dizzy punch!" She commanded, as her Buneary set of to finish the Luxray as quickly as possible. It fired back in defence with a shock wave, then tackled Buneary to knock her out, but she stood back up and surprised it with another Ice Beam. To their luck, Luxray became frozen and unable to move, so they took their chance to run.


	6. Warming?

**Chapter 5**

"Paul…" She groaned, trundling behind. They were way ahead of Galactic, and lost them because without Luxray they had no light to lead them. "I'm physically worn out, and I'm hungry." She dropped onto her knees dramatically and threw the back of her hand on her forehead; "Go on without me." He stopped to look at the pitiful sight, she opened one of her eyes mischievously and smirked and he rolled his eyes. "We're near Veilstone now. If we can get to my Brother he can get your Pokémon from the center you left them at."

She dropped her hand onto her lap and pouted; "I did not _leave_ them… I got taken away from them." Her head dropped in shame, her thoughts racing over her abandoned Pokémon. The thought of them being locked away until an owner came by, and the chances were usually slim…

"Whatever." He made her jump, as he was stood looking down at her and had got closer without her realising. He had a hand held out to help her up, which she took gratefully and hoisted herself up. The sun had begun to peak over a mountain, which meant they would be exposed soon. The fear did not cross either of their minds as they were preoccupied with an awkward silence and uncomfortable closeness of their bodies. For a brief moment their eyes caught each others, and she followed them when his eyes rolled out of the embarrassment. "We'd better get to Reggie…" He coughed, stepping away and letting go of her hand, he walked on ahead and began clicking into his Pokedex. She picked up a jog to catch up then slowed to walk at his pace; which was still relatively fast. "Paul?" She pestered again.

"What now?" He sighed heavily, though it didn't stop her. "What happens if they already have Reggie? They aimed for the Meteorites last time I was here and Reggie was there when we stopped them. They know him Paul; they'll target him because he's a threat."

"He wouldn't be stupid enough to get caught." Paul snapped, though it was only subtle due to his unusual calmness.

"I still worry; even Cynthia struggled to hold them off…" She resulted to talking to herself, as he had walked off again, and she continued to scuff her boots. After a few times of stopping for Dawn, they reached Reggie and Paul's home, and he tapped the door impatiently. Reggie didn't have time to greet, as Paul had barged his way through anyway. "Hello Reggie! How are you?" Dawn asked cheerfully, standing beside the door.

"Will you get in here already!? We're only in trouble because of you!" Paul scowled, pulling her in forcefully. Reggie closed the door behind her; "What sort of trouble?" He worried, but walked over to the Kitchen to prepare tea for them as they sat on the couch. "Team Galactic trouble." Dawn whined, and it was enough for Reggie to understand.

A key was faintly heard rattling in the door until it opened, revealing the unexpected; "Reggie I-" She spotted the company and droned out of her greeting; "err…" She drained out of conversation much like the blood in her face. The mere sight of Paul made her throat dry and crack, she gulped heavily, and hurried into the kitchen.

"Why has _she _got keys!?" Paul growled, tapping his fingers on the chair arm impatiently. Dawn frowned; "You should be nice to her, she went through a tough time because of you."

"I didn't have a tough time with her though." He smirked, clearly tempted to throw the badge out and around again.

"Well I think Maylene and Reggie have something going on. It would explain the keys… Did you see the way she blushed?" Dawn cooed, craning her neck to see into the kitchen nosily. Paul scoffed sarcastically; "I really don't care about my brother's relationships."

"But if you have any respect or decency for your brother you'll be at least civil to Maylene. She's a gym leader after all." Dawn snapped quietly.

He rolled his eyes, tapping faster and more furiously. Reggie came in with tea and milk with cookies, and laid them on the coffee table in the middle. Paul reached out for the tea first rudely, but none were surprised.

"How's Lucario?" Dawn broke the awkward silence as she poured herself some tea. Maylene nodded and took the Tea Pot; "Lucario is doing fine, he's training with the others at the moment, they should be back soon. Where's Ash and Brock?"

That feeling of nausea in the pit of her stomach tightened, a feeling she recognised as guilt; for forgetting they were in trouble. She looked at Paul who didn't seem fazed, and she then looked back into her lap. "What happened to your neck?" she gasped, the bruises were becoming yellow, but still very visible. "She doesn't want to talk about it." Paul snapped, clearly growing annoyed with the questions. Dawn looked awkwardly between the three of them, then found herself staring back into her lap.

"Team Galactic." Reggie spoke up for her, but Maylene continued to watch Dawn closely as she shuffled around awkwardly; not the Dawn she was used to.

"Dawn, don't worry about them, they'll get out." Reggie assured her, handing out the cookies. They took one each and devoured them as they were extremely tasty.

"Reggie, Dawn needs her Pokémon from Sunyshore City; she was taken with only Buneary." Paul stood up, silently demanding for Reggie's assistance. He nodded and began to clear the plates. "Reggie, sit down! We've only just got here." Dawn giggled, although she was as eager to see her Pokémon again, she didn't want to seem rude like Paul. "I can see the worry in your eyes. I know how I'd feel being separated with my Pokémon. I'll get them now; can I have your Trainer Card please?"

She shuffled through her belongings and pulled out her Pokedex, which had a small slot holding her Trainer Card. The two girls watched as the brothers walked into a different room, obviously the place where the small Pokémon slept as well as a caring area.

"What are you doing with him?" Maylene lowered her voice in disgust as soon as they were out of listening reach. Dawn blinked expressionlessly, her blue innocent eyes showing naive confusion. "He saved my life. What are you doing with Reggie?" She smirked as Maylene blushed a deep red. "We've been around each other for a while now and gotten really close."

Dawn grinned; "How close?" They giggled together; "I'm not telling you!" Maylene burst into fits of laughter, and only managed to calm down when her Lucario came in the room with Machoke and a newly evolved Medicham.

Dawn held up her hand and made a circle with her finger and thumb with a slight gap between them. "This close?" She mouthed silently, and Maylene shook her head. She closed the space between her finger and thumb and pouted playfully, watching as Maylene creased up with hilarity. It took her several minutes to calm, and for her face to cool to a natural colour; "Seriously though, you and Paul?"

"No not me and Paul." Dawn insisted, though she felt a slight tinge in her stomach at the thought. Maylene raised an eyebrow as Dawn fidgeted in her seat to stop her stomach from cramping, and then she sighed; "You know damn well what's happened recently with Ash. I'm not even ready to look at anyone in that way let alone feel that way."

"For some reason I don't want to believe you, but I have many reasons to want to. I see the way you look at him." Maylene pondered, lowering her voice again.

"Wha-?"

"Piplup!" A sweet cry came from the door, Dawn's heart stopped for a second as she turned her head. She let out a small cry of her own and ran over, hugging all three of her Pokémon together. They cheered happily between themselves, as Dawn sobbed into Mamoswine's fur and clutched her Pachirisu and Piplup tightly. Buneary burst out herself and hopped over to them, greeting them cutely in a warm embrace.

"This is all very touching," Paul sighed, "but we have to get going. Team Galactic will be in the city by now and we need to have vanished."

She stood up and looked at Maylene sadly, having not yet caught up with her properly. "Paul it's a big city, I doubt they'll find you." Reggie assured him, but Paul shook his head; "You don't know that. I'd rather not put all our lives in danger thanks." He looked at Dawn with a gleam of order in his eyes, which she obeyed quickly. She returned her Pokémon and hugged Maylene, thanked Reggie and walked after Paul once more.

His Honchkrow, healed and healthy again, was sent out on watch for attackers around the corner, as they hurried along the smaller streets. She had no clue as to where they were going, but followed along anyway.

_Pfft… Not ready to look that way. You looked that way yesterday! _She scolded herself for lying, but suddenly perked up; _Ooh, poetry. I should tell Gary when I next see him…_

"What are you smiling at?" Paul frowned at her, now walking beside her and not ahead. She shrugged; "Sometimes you don't need a reason. You should remember that one." She teased, only to receive a roll of the eyes yet again.

_The only reason I look at him differently is because he saved my life. _She assured herself, her head slightly nodding. She took a glance at him then continued to watch the path they were walking; nearly reaching the edge of the city. _Yeah… Keep telling yourself that…_


	7. Filling a silence

**Hahaa, so yeah, I thought you might like some more. **

**Chapter Six.**

Once again she sighed, and Paul became slightly more annoyed. He walked ahead of her, not bothering to check if she was alright.

"Paul I'm hungry." She whined, and he took his turn to sigh.

"You're always bloody hungry." He growled, but she didn't give up on her pestering.

"Can we not stop for five minutes? We can eat the sandwiches your brother made us." Her mouth watered at the thought.

"Five minutes. You can eat walking if you don't hurry, they could easily catch us in broad daylight."

She sighed with relief and dropped to sit on a rock nearby, which Paul copied on another nearby. She had already begun devouring the thick bread filled with Miltank butter, cheese and salad, lightly dressed with salad cream. She hummed in amazement, to annoy Paul a little more.

"It's amazing!" She squealed with delight; "Now I know why you can cook so well." She winked, then continued to crunch into her thick sandwich. Little did she know that Paul's anger had faded with such a small gesture, and had lost his appetite. He stood up quickly, and tapped his foot impatiently; "We need to get going."

"But you haven't even touched your-"

"I'm not hungry." He said quickly, and she sighed to stand up again, clutching her sandwich possessively.

They had walked far enough for her to have finished her lunch, and she was licking the salad cream off her fingers when she bumped into the back of Paul, who was staring upwards. A Skarmory hovered above and searched through the trees rapidly. He placed his hand on her waist from behind him, and pushed her sideward towards the tree. This caught her off guard as she found herself blushing and wasn't occupied in watching where she was being pushed to and tripped, dragging him down with her.

She giggled quietly; "Sorry." He hushed her harshly, and then pushed her towards the bushes to hide.

"I've never even met the boss, I'm always ordered by Admin Mars…"

"Lucky you, I have Saturn a lot of the time, at least you have something decent to look at."

"Mmm, yeah, she's mighty fine."

"She's mighty alright!" The grunts roared laughing with each other, and walked past them without taking a glance in their direction. Once their laughs grew quiet and distant, she sighed heavily with relief.

"That was close." She whispered, careful in case anyone else was around.

"They are close, which means we need to keep moving." Paul grunted, though his voice had a tone she had never heard before; he sounded sick with worry.

He turned to face her as she wasn't making any sign of movement, instead she smiled; "Thank you."

He rolled his eyes, and she laughed; "Whatever happened to leaving you alone?" He had no reply, for once.

The silence between them became uncomfortable, and he shuffled on the spot slightly. He looked up at her to see she was still watching him, with a smirk similar to his own plastered elegantly across her face. He moved closer, pausing slightly as he reconsidered, then skimmed his lips across hers. He opened his eyes to look at her expression, which was pure shock. It sank in for her slowly, and her dropped jaw eventually closed and her lips upturned slightly. She saw his eyes light up slightly, and she sat up to reach him properly. He cupped onto her face gently then ran his hands down to around her waist so she could hold his arms instead of her own weight. Seeing how well she had responded, Paul pushed it a step further by brushing his tongue against her lips, which she giggled quietly and let the kiss progress. As their embrace tightened, their grip on each other did too, and they found themselves pressed up against each other by the time they had finished. She ran her hands along his chest making him laugh as she pulled her arms around his neck. After a while, they had grown tired, and reluctantly craned their necks back in to find their faces were equally as red.

"A-uh-a-Wow." Was all she managed to squeak out, giddy with the lack of oxygen. "Is that really the way to ask a girl out?" She giggled. He smirked in his arrogant way, and she blushed as he looked over her. "Obviously." He retorted, though a hint of self-mockery shone through his voice. She smirked, letting go of him and brushing him off to hold her hips. "Well then, Mr Confident. You just got turned down." She smiled sarcastically and walked off; "Dawn…" He growled, chasing after her.

Her smile widened, she knew she had him under her thumb and she loved it. It was time to get him back for all the times he had out-witted her. He repeated her name after managing to catch up to her and walked at her side. "So," she said simply, letting her arms dangle to her sides, brushing her now ruined dress.

"Me and you?" Paul suggested, though he was clearly a little annoyed from being rejected.

She rolled her eyes; "I suppose so." She sighed; her acting skills were failing miserably as he was smirking at it. She smiled back and let her hand wander closer to him, finding his and entwining her fingers through his. At first he didn't react, but looked down and closed his fingers tightly, on the verge of crushing her delicate small fingers for a split second. She gave a quick squeeze back, and sudden thoughts were rushing to her, feelings mixing like berries in a Poffin Blender; Lust, giddiness, guilt, confusion and happiness all bundled together made her dizzy, and extremely tired. The realisation of it being Paul she shared such passionate moments with was a peculiar thought. Paul; the arrogant, cocky, forceful know all who barely acknowledged her in previous meetings. Paul; the rival of her first crush, who hated each other with a burning passion and would go to any measures to beat each other. And now Paul; her new boyfriend.

The next part was something she did not wish to remember on such a lovely day, it was spoilt with those moments. She felt a hand slide around her face and cup her mouth, another arm snaking around her waist to pick her up off her feet. Paul had also been grabbed, but with both of his arms being held back. They both struggled as she looked over to her abductees; the two grunts that had passed them just minutes ago.

_How could I have been so stupid!? _She growled to herself, and then bit into his hand covering her mouth. He dropped her instantly, but the Skarmory stopped her from reaching Paul. "Tentacruel, wrap her up!" She felt a Pokémon's tentacles wrap around her, and she stiffened with paralysis. "Move and the poison will seep into you." The grunt threatened, rubbing his hand where she had bitten him. She turned to look at Paul, who had a Venusaur's vine whip wrapped around him tightly.

"Let him take a nap." The one grunt ordered, and the Venusaur began pulsating its large flower to release a powder onto a struggling Paul, who once took a breath; went completely flaccid.

"Paul!" Dawn shouted out for help, wriggling to break free, not realising the sharp pain on poison seeping into her system. The next thing she knew was that her toes and fingertips were becoming numb, and her breathing grew sharper. The tingling sensation creeping up her body left no feeling, and soon her head was feeling it, growing lighter, then heavier, and heavier…


	8. Reunion

**I got so excited I needed to write more. =]**

**Chapter Seven.**

That horrible feeling of the tiniest scratch on your skin scraping away at your vein. It was the first thing she had felt in a while, although she had lost all sense of time and space, she had no recollection of who she was or where she was for the first moments. Slowly her heart began to race to a normal rate, and her brain began to think her way into consciousness.

"She's awake Admin Jupiter."

_Oh no... _She groaned as her whereabouts dawned on her, and what could possibly happen to her without Paul there to save the day. She sat upright quickly, her head rushing madly, but she didn't care; "What did you do to Paul?" She shrieked, finally spotting the pink haired Galactic Admin after her vision had focussed.

"He took a swim." The woman cackled as she wandered closer, Dawn flailed her arms and legs to attack but found her wrists bound to each other tightly; cutting the circulation almost completely. The grabbed hold of her to stop her from attacking until she calmed, and Jupiter clicked her fingers for them to let go. "I swear if you've hurt him-"

"You don't even have any pokemon to threaten us with girl." The woman continued to cackle, little did she know that Dawn kept her pokeballs safely in a pocket under her dress skirt; a tip a mother taught her from when she was a co-ordinator in case she ever needed to switch her pokemon at the last second. Dawn's face did not flicker, for she knew she couldn't give anything away, this was her way to escape.

"Take her to her friends." Her heart stopped as two of the grunts took her arms and escorted her out. She assumed this was where they were going to attempt to torture her again. The opened the door and shoved her in, closing it quickly. She turned and banged on the door; "Let me out! I don't have what you want! Let me see-"

"Dawn?" She was stopped from her screeching with such a soothing voice. She swivelled on her heels and her face lit up. "Brock! Ash! I'm so glad you're okay!" She burst into tears and hurried over to them, tackling their weak bodies to the floor. "We thought they'd already got you…" Brock laughed weakly and hugged her back. She looked around and realised they must already have Pikachu, and their pokemon. Ash hadn't spoke a word, he was pale with sickness and worry.

"They did, they caught me before you, and took us to separate places, they want me and Ash for testing out link between the Legendary pokemon we saw."

"How do they know you saw them? You don't tell everyone about it." Brock frowned, but continued his questions when she shrugged. "I heard them talking of you escaping?"

"With Paul." Ash spat. Both of them looked to him as he glared at Dawn, clearly disapproving of her company.

"We discussed this Ash, it might not have been Paul, they were near Veilstone. It could have been Reggie."

"It was Paul." Dawn choked under Ash's glare, but he looked away in disappointment. Dawn was not happy with his reaction and twitched with anger.

"You can't expect me to turn down a helping hand when there is no other way out, can you? I was about to be raped! Look!" She pointed at her neck, which was still heavily bruised, it hurt to bring it back up, but she was so angry at Ash she couldn't feel any sadness. Brock touched it sensitively, frowning at as she hissed at the touch.

"And besides, Paul is actually quite nice when you get to know him." She stuck her nose in the air in a-matter-of-fact way. Ash stood up, walking after her; "You can't be serious."

"Yes. I am." She spat at him hotly, then leant down to lift up her dress. He frowned and looked away suddenly as she lifted up the skirt; "And he's in trouble so we have to get out of here. She revealed her pokeballs. Brock smiled and stepped between the two; "Mamoswine might be able to break through the walls."

"-But our pokemon!" Ash shouted, only to be hushed by Brock. Dawn nodded; "We'll take them all out."

She released her all of her pokemon then explained her plan; "If we ride Mamoswine through to your pokemon, anyone in our way can be shocked by Pachirisu. Buneary will stop people from following with icebeam on the floor, that way they'll slip. Any fire Pokemon then Piplup will handle it. Okay?" They all nodded quietly and got into position on Mamoswine. Ash sat facing away from Dawn, claiming he was watching the back of them. Dawn sighed, and began her chain of orders; "Ancient power, Mamoswine!" It did as told, and after several blasts at the door, it blew through to the floor and they came out.

"Pachirisu! Discharge!" Being on Mamoswine left them all completely unaffected, and the electricity pulsed through the bodies of the grunts. Ash ordered Buneary to begin the Icy floor defence, which began to work like a charm.

"Take it out Sableye." That dreaded voice growled, as Pachirisu was tackled to the ground. "Ice shard Mamoswine! Keep going!" Dawn shouted as she began returning Pachirisu. Piplup also jumped around to use bide to take Sableye's attacks. Buneary turned and shot an icebeam to push it away, and the bide power broke down the next wall with Mamoswine's small ice shard.

"We're getting there!" Brock yelled; "I can hear Happiny!" It was true, its wail was loud and clear.

"Skuntank, flamethrower!" Mamoswine roared in agony, but Piplup had already jumped to it with a whirlpool, blocking the next attack ordered by Jupiter, who was running after them by now.

"Buneary!" Dawn called as she slid off; "Mamoswine! Block them while I get the pokemon!" It nodded and turned, using a much more powerful Ice Shard which blasted through the whirlpool for surprise attack. Dawn continued to run along with Buneary on her shoulder, then ordered a dizzy punch on the guard to grab hold of the key. "Pikapi!" Pikachu had already begun to lead the pokemon out, and Dawn grabbed their bags and ran out after them.

"Sudowoodo! Double edge!" Brock shouted and pointed to the wall, it saluted sharply and began running at the wall. She began returning all but Mamoswine, who was still eager to battle.

"Get Dawn out of here." Ash shouted at Brock, who nodded and ushered her out, she couldn't see what happened from there as Brock had started pulling her away.

It wasn't long before he joined them in a remote area where they were concealed with bushes. "I have to go now." Dawn said quickly, but the two just stared. "I have to find Paul. He's in danger too."

"He can take care of himself, Dawn." Ash walked after, Brock frowning and following after him. She turned and glared at him; "He saved my life. Does that mean nothing to you?"

"Of course it does, but so do Pokem-" Ash was backed into a corner, and Dawn began screaming; "If he were so bad his pokemon would run away, he's a good person! You make out he's a bad person."

Her eyes had welled up a barrier to block her vision by now, and Ash had begun to laugh. "Jeez if you wanna help him so bad we'll help you, but don't cry to me when he shouts at you for it."

"I don't want your help." She spat, losing any faith in the boy she once adored.


	9. Embarrasing catch

**Sorry guys, I haven't stopped this weekend from Wednesday so I've been quickly jotting down small bits but not enough for the whole chapter. So I made this one extra long to make up for the time you waited. ^^**

**Chapter Eight**

She felt sick with worry, and her body was exhausted. She knew that two of the Galactic bases had been destroyed, and so she was safe while they repaired the damage. She kept her head low everywhere she went, eventually winding up in a familiar town she recognised as Veilstone. She sighed with relief as she hurried to a shop and brought food, and a large cape-like coat to conceal herself with. She then climbed up further staircases of the Department store, and brought two new outfits, neither she was particularly excited about, but would do as she was in a hurry. She changed into them and hurried to the Pokémon center, which was next door. Nurse Joy recognised her and pulled her into a spare room; "Oh my goodness you look exhausted, here give me your Pokémon then I'll call Officer Jenny…"

"No." Dawn said quickly, holding onto Joy's arm desperately. "That's what happened last time and they found us…" Nurse Joy nodded, understanding due to her sister's harm. "Don't tell anyone I'm here. Can you get me on the phone to Reggie please?"

Being a well known breeder, Nurse Joy nodded and hurried over to her address book, dialling quickly as she mumbled the numbers then handed Dawn the phone. The screen lit up, to show a worried faced Reggie, though he attempted to smile his greeting.  
"Reggie, it's me." She didn't know why, but she whispered as she spoke to him. His face lit up when she removed her hood. "I'm so glad to see you're okay! Paul told me you were-"

"Paul's there?" Her heart stopped, then began to race with relief. "Thank goodness…"

"He's not said a word though, he went straight to his room and refuses to come out to eat, or anything!" Reggie looked behind him to the staircase, then back at the screen; "I think he was really worried about you, y'know."

She blushed, _So he should be! _She thought, as she was equally worried about him. _Why didn't he come looking for me? Something must be wrong with him. _She worried, and Reggie saw her face falter as she continued to think.

"Was he okay though?"

Reggie shrugged; "He was drenched from top to toe, and although he tried to hide it, he had a slight limp and was clutching his wrist. But he seems fine, for Paul that is…" He tried to make her laugh, but she just stayed as worried.

"I'll be around in a minute, maybe I can get him to talk." Dawn bit her lip. Reggie laughed at her; "You think you can get _Paul _to talk? This is my brother we're talking about right?" She nodded, but he continued to laugh; "Well he's locked his door, so you can climb through the window at the front. He always has it open."

She nodded; "I'll be there pretty soon." She whispered once more, and bid him farewell, which he returned and the screen turned blank again.

"Paul has always been a strange child." Joy nodded, clearly having watched him grow up, Dawn frowned; "But he has a heart of gold really. I think you can break down his shell, if you _can_ get him to talk."

Dawn smiled and sat down; "Do you have any idea why Paul is the way he is?" Joy sighed; "I don't think anyone could ever fully understand what goes on in his head. But his father wasn't the nicest of men. He used to push Reggie so hard, and forced him to go into battling to earn a reputation when he always wanted to be a breeder. Reggie became a big star of this city, and Paul had always admired him until he suddenly quit. Apparently it broke his father's heart and he left him to look after Paul, and Paul was left broken too. I guess whichever way you see it Paul always came off worse."

"So I guess that's why Paul is so competitive now." Dawn suddenly realised, she never once thought about what drove Paul to want to do so well, seeing as Ash just had it as 'doing it for the sake of doing it.' She had no clue as to why she was asking Nurse Joy this, she obviously didn't know all the answers, even if she did live in Veilstone city.

"What about their mother?"

Nurse Joy shrugged; "I've heard the rumours…" She sighed, but continued when Dawn looked at her in a begging puppy-dog-eye way. "I heard one that she wasn't exactly faithful and well… Let's just say if it's true then Reggie and Paul aren't full brothers, whether it's true or not I don't know… But she died giving birth to Paul."

"That's terrible." Dawn almost felt like crying, the thought of losing her own mother was unbearable.

Nurse Joy sat down at her side; "I'm telling you this because I want you to see why Paul is the way he is, if he has been hurt this much you can understand why he's so awkward when it comes to socializing. I think that maybe if you can do that, you can help him."

Dawn nodded, and went to stand up, but Joy stopped her; "Don't talk to him about it, unless he tells you the truth."

"Thanks Nurse Joy." She stood up, pulled up her hood, then ran out into the city.

She spotted aura spheres in a crowd of people, and they all seemed to be cheering wildly, which made her swiftly run past so as not to be noticed. She finally realised where she was going after walking around for a while, and followed down a small path to find Reggie and Paul's abode. As Reggie said, the front window was wide open. She found herself running, even with the little energy she had, her excitement was childlike, yet her motive was mature, charming and enjoyable. She flicked her Mamoswine's pokeball once again, calling for its help; "Could you give me a boost?" She whispered as she pointed to the window, and it nodded, standing closer to the wall. "Then go around the back, Reggie will take care of you." She clambered onto her large Pokémon, who stretched up onto its hind legs, allowing her to climb up its tusk and into the window. He was stood up and halfway through the door, a slight limp in his left leg.

"Paul." She breathed gently, enough to catch his attention as he swivelled on the spot. His face did not falter from his scowl, but his eyes shone a smirk at her as the sun reflected through his thick, purple hair. She spotted he had a black eye, and several bruises, and he could barely blink the one eye. She had run three quarters of his room by the time he had hobbled the rest, and she didn't stop herself as she collided into him to clasp him tightly in a hug. "I was so worried! I manage to escape as soon as I woke up." She sighed, rubbing his back slightly.

"Me too, but I overheard their radio saying their base had been destroyed."

"What's happened to your leg?" She walked him over to his bed, sitting him down in a motherly way. He mumbled something, clearly ashamed, so she could hear, provoking her to speak up; "Pardon?"

"They dropped me in a lake with a weight on my waist. I landed with my leg crushed funny. I managed to slide through the weight's chain and get to the surface."

"Thank goodness you're alright!" She gasped, squeezing his stomach closer to her, restricting airflow. He wriggled uncomfortably, and resorted to lying onto his bed so she had to let go to follow him. "So how is it…" He began, sighing as she rested her chin on her hands which sprawled across his chest freely. "That you, the one that they wanted, got out without a scratch and I get dumped in a lake?" His last word turned into a scowl, slightly irritated at his treatment.

She shrugged; "Maybe they took mercy on poor little me." She giggled, batting her puppy-dog eyes. He rolled his eyes, his frown staying put but his mouth widened to a smirk.

"I could kiss it better." She pouted mischievously, arching her back so her body was beside his but her head was held high from him. His smirk could not have moved much wider, obviously indicating a yes. She gently pressed her lips onto his chest, and slowly made her way to his neck, having to clamber over him to reach his face. He looked at her as she stared back down to his eyes, and he closed them as she kissed his bruised one. He flinched slightly at the pain, but tilted his head so his mouth was in line with hers. She ran her hand through his hair to pull it out of the way, and then lent the further couple of centimetres to gain contact. They engaged in the all too pleasing kiss, their tongues dancing around each other satisfyingly. They didn't realise how the time went by, and were interrupted by a pitiful attempt to stop laughing. They stopped and looked to the door for the disturbance, their faces both flushing an extremely crimson red.

"Well I'll be!" Reggie laughed, looking at their far too awkward position which had so many implications. She found she had wound her hand up his t-shirt without realising, and he gripping onto her waist tightly. Her legs were straddled over his better leg, her body pressed onto his with the help of gravity.

She crawled backwards quickly, allowing him to sit up too. She placed her hands into her lap and stared at them firmly, far too embarrassed to look at Reggie. Paul however had stood up and began walking over; "Get out of my room." He said firmly, clearly annoyed at the interruption but Reggie continued to vex him. "Now now you two, be sensible." She had never seen Paul react so much before, as his face had turned completely red; with either embarrassment or anger, or maybe both. "You're not too big anymore Reggie, I can take you on." He threatened, pushing him backwards, out of his room. Reggie threw his hands up in a surrender, still laughing; "Okay, but I wish you'd have told me you got such a pretty girl. Dinner is downstairs, it's a good job I knew she was coming." He paused; "But not for that."

_Oh the embarrassment… _She cringed in thought.


	10. Self harm and sympathy

**Happy Ikarishipping day People!**

**Yayyy! I'm so excited! A year today Paul and Dawn met for the first time! Woo!**

**Warning! This Chapter contains dark hints and may offend some people. (The Summery has also had a change to warn others.)**

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* * *

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**Chapter Nine.**

He slammed his door shut, turned and rolled his eyes; his way of saying sorry. His face was a light shade of red but his signature smirk was still painted clearly across his face. He began to make his way back but she stopped him limping by holding him back.

"Paul, I'm actually really hungry, can we not go down and eat?" She pleaded, batting her eyelashes slightly. _As if that would work… _

"You and your stomach." He looked down at it and poked her gently. She contracted and clutched her tummy and frowned at him; "Are you calling me fat?"

"No." He replied quickly without a thought. He raised an eyebrow at her as she frowned even more. "I'll have you know I work hard to keep skinny and I eat healthy food so I am not fat!"

"I never said you were!" He raised his voice over her rant, but she did not stop. He ended up holding two fingers on her lips until her mumbles came to a halt. "Shut up and go get some food." He grumbled, before pushing her in front of him and following her down the stairs.

"Ahh, just in time." Reggie said as he placed some plates and cutlery down, it did not take Dawn long to notice there were four sets. Paul, however, was being as oblivious as Ash. This thought could have made her laugh if she were in the mood to, but the thought of Ash and their argument saddened her, and so she slumped into the chair, forgetting her point in the first place. Paul sat beside her, rubbing the side of his forehead and grimacing slightly as if he had a headache.

"Here we go." Reggie came back in with two plates of food, and as expected by Dawn, Maylene followed with two too.

As soon as Paul noticed, he had already picked up his fork and so he slammed it back down and stood up quickly, making the others jump. "What is _she _doing here _again?" _He pointed sharply at Maylene and glared down at his brother. Maylene, as much as she was expecting it, stared down at her lap awkwardly. Dawn was already glaring at Paul to stop, with no avail whatsoever.

"You're just going to have to get used to it." Reggie said calmly, clearly knowing how to handle Paul. This moment made Dawn click, if she fired at Paul the way he did, it would only make matters worse. Being calm would give him no reason to keep shouting.

He proved her wrong; "Why!?" He began yelling at Reggie; "She's pathetic. You're getting worse!"

"Don't talk about her like that." Dawn could see Reggie's finger twitching impatiently as he calmed his nerves.

"Don't tell me what to do. She's a pitiful excuse for a gym lead-"

"I said enough!" Reggie stood up, yelling at him now. Paul grumbled slightly, his mouth sneering and his eyes 'throwing daggers'.

_If looks could kill… _Dawn worried, deciding to let them calm down and not make it worse as she usually did.

"No wonder Dad left." Paul spat hatefully. Dawn gasped and looked between the two, Paul kept his face at his worst, yet Reggie was equally as cold, but his eyes were full of shock and pain.

"I did my best to bring you up and that's all you have to say." Reggie choked slightly, but he gulped and continued; "You'll never know what our Father did to me."

"He pushed you because you'd be worthless if he didn't, just like now." Paul looked him up and down. "I won't be the same."  
"That's enough Paul. Come on." Dawn stood up, Reggie looked like he was at breaking point. She gripped onto his arm and tried to pull his face to look at her pleading face, but he snatched himself away and stormed up the stairs, slamming his bedroom door.

She looked between Maylene and Reggie, they were both completely silent. Maylene still had her eyes focussed on her legs, hot tear tracks burning down her cheeks. Reggie had now slumped into his chair and was staring blankly at his table. His head was resting on two fingers, his hand shaking with anger.

She shuffled awkwardly on her feet, before deciding to follow Paul to see if he was okay. She was stopped as she walked past Reggie; "Be careful, don't let him hurt you."

"He won't." She smiled weakly, and then looked to Maylene who shook her head slightly. Reggie nodded; "If anyone can talk to him you can. He has always been distant to me, ever since-" He paused, but Dawn caught the drift. She nodded to assure him; "I'll try my best."

She opened the door slowly and peeped her head around carefully, his bed quilt had been thrown on the floor and Pillows were scattered across the room. His jacket was also crumpled and dangled over the widely open window. Once she realised he wasn't there, the realisation of the window being open wider gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. She hurried over and looked down to find Mamoswine sitting and looking angrily up at her, obviously annoyed at being ignored. She smiled as best she could, and returned her Pokémon.

"Paul?" She squeaked, looking around until she stupidly looked up. To her surprise, a pair of feet were dangling over the roof's edge. He had clearly climbed up the plant, which she smacked her face as she realised she could have got up that way earlier. She nervously poked the plant, and then began to climb up.

"Aipom in the making." He grunted when her head popped up at his side. It stung at the thought of her Ambipom, she missed it dearly. She shrugged it off and focused on Paul as she sat beside him. His deep blue shirt was covered in leaves and his trousers weren't so neat as usual.

"Why do you come up here?" She started, finally decided where to begin. This was the time Nurse Joy had told her of.

"To think." He said plainly, he was clearly in no mood to talk, but Dawn was going to push him gently. "About?" She urged him to continue, her eyes round with innocence which he could have sank in if he let himself.

"Everything. Battles, plans… Everything." He sighed with a slight hint of growl; "I don't want to talk about it, if that's what you're aiming at."

She blinked slightly, _how does he read me that easily!? _She smiled softly and nodded; "That's fine. You can say anything if and when you're ready."

A flicker of a thankful smile reflected across his face, but he changed back to his scowl and continued to think as he looked out onto the horizon of city.

She rested her head onto his shoulder, and snaked her hand along his arm to reach his hand, but brushed along something which didn't feel like skin. "What's that!?" She gasped, pulling his hand closer to her eyes.

He pulled his hand back and folded his arms to his chest; "Nothing, it's when those idiots attacked me."

She frowned; "I'm not stupid, that was today." She snatched his arm and gripped like a Crawdaunt. He eventually gave up wriggling, surrendering to her strength. Her frown was upturned with worry, and all she wanted to do was cry.  
"Paul." She breathed, almost breaking into sob. He didn't look or respond to her at all. She blinked rapidly in shock; no words could describe what she was thinking or how she felt. He could feel her shaking violently through her grasp, and eventually she dropped it and looked away to hide her tears.

"I didn't even know you when I did it, so don't cry." He said impatiently. "I don't even know why I was so stupid."

He watched her shoulders as they forcefully held down her sobs, he placed a hand onto one, and tried to turn her; "I had no one to talk to. Don't you understand?" He paused; "…Well you wouldn't. You wouldn't want to either." He sighed again, which made her stop as she could have sworn she could hear a break in his voice.

"Does anyone know?" She turned around to him to find he had his head hung low and covered with thick straight purple hair. She saw him move to symbol a no; "Talk to me then." She gripped onto his fingers, slotting hers between his. He squeezed gently and slipped his hand away to rub his forehead again; "I just want to go to bed. It's been a long day. Do you mind?" He said carefully.

She shook her head and attempted a smile. He lent into her and kissed her passionately, clearly showing his thanks in a special way. He could feel her tears leaking desperately onto his nose and lips, the taste being bitter but he didn't care. He left her to watch the sunset as he did so many times in his younger years. She bit her lip to the point where it bled, and her palms were sweating with worry. Her eyes stung to the point where no more tears came out, no matter how hard she tried to blink them off as they were blurring her vision.

Once the sun was merely a line in the distance, she sighed and gave up trying to keep herself awake, and climbed down the vines into the room once more. Paul was sound asleep, a frown permanently plastered across his dreaming face. She brushed his face gently to stop him, then kissed his, now unwrinkled, forehead. He woke up groggily, and moved over allowing her to climb in and hug him tightly. He was quick to close his eyes again, but he did not sleep until she had finished her sobs that rang out into the night.

* * *

**Haha, so for Ikarishipping day; I went extremely dark. I apologise if you're offended by any of this, but I thought it would be a moving way to make them closer to each other. **

**And you gotta love how I softened him. ^-^' **

**Just in time too, with 10 minutes left of Ikarishipping day. Happy Ikarishipping day! ^^**


	11. Cat Fight

**Hahaa, so you didn't take the hint like I thought you would, but when I re-hinted it you soon got it. So yeah, Paul was once in a state of depression. *Cries and grips Paul* **

**Heh, I mean… That's what Dawn is doing… Onto the writing! *Sweat drops***

**Chapter Ten.**

She woke up alone. The sunlight was peeping gently into her stinging eyes, and her burning face was heating up under the rays. She sat up, throwing off the quilt cover gently and rolled her aching neck. She stroked her hand through her hair and made a vomiting noise, taking her hand out immediately.

_No wonder Paul isn't here… _She sighed to herself, and made her way into his en suite. She switched his shower on, and undressed out of the clothes she could be bothered to change out of the previous night. She climbed in, closing the frost-glass door behind her and shrieking; "Cold! Cold!" She turned the dial up three quarters of the way, and sighed as it warmed up, the hot needles banging onto her tired skin.

_Why on earth does he have cold showers?! _She shook her head to Paul's obscurity, but made a mental note that he was not like her at all. She looked at all the hair products packed into a small shelf to her left. She grinned to herself as she thought of Paul's vanity.

_Nothing wrong with a boy wanting nice hair!_ She smelt a few of them, thinking of how Ash would have looked if he actually cared about his hair. Unfortunately, it made her scowl, and she picked up the next bottle she touched, not caring. Thankfully, it smelt sweet like Mint and Tea tree; it tingled when she rubbed it onto her hair. She was glad she chose it, because it made her feel extremely clean.

She hopped out, turning the shower off fully, and wrapping a towel around her body and another in a turban around her hair. Whilst washing her face from any makeup left she hummed softly, feeling a lot happier now she was clean. To top this, she remembered she had brought new clothes to wear, so she hurried out, forgetting where she was.  
"Morning." She felt a hand wrap around her as it pushed her to lean backwards so he could hold her romantically. Her turban fell off to reveal wet hair, but she chose to cling onto her other towel to avoid embarrassment. He also had damp hair, but it was visibly closer to being dry than hers. He kissed her sweetly and lifted her back up again, but her knees were weak and her head was giddy.

"You're in a good mood." She mumbled, _especially for Paul! _She had never seen him smile with contentment, and it warmed her completely. She blushed as he continued to look at her, and became slightly nervous he was judging her with just a towel on. "Can you let me go? I need to get dressed!"

He smirked at her, and let her go; "Sorry." He mumbled, then turned to make his bed. She noticed he was back to wearing his long sleeved jacket, and he was back to hiding away again. She grabbed her bag and walked back into the en suite, changing into her new outfit; a grey baggy playsuit which had shorts for the bottom, and she also had brought some pink tights and a matching belt to accentuate her tiny waist. She partly dried her hair and scrunched it, and continued to dry it so it became curly and natural, something she never used to like, but had decided on a change.

The room was empty when she re-entered, so she assumed Paul had gone downstairs. She sighed and dropped her bag on the extremely neat bed, then pulled out her Pokeballs. "Come on out guys." She released them out of the window, and they materialised in the garden.

"Go and stretch! I'll be out in a minute!" They nodded and ran off to play with the other day-care Pokémon. She checked herself once more in the mirror, then ran down the stairs happily, totally forgetting the argument last night.

"Wow, you look nice Dawn."

She turned and grinned at her friend, who was sat watching the current boxing match on the television. Dawn thanked her and sat beside her; "Where's Paul?"

"Oh." Maylene sighed, clearly a little bitter; "He and Reggie went out to talk; I stayed to watch over the Pokémon."  
Dawn nodded slightly; "He's not that bad, Maylene." Her pink haired friend snorted, clearly amused at this statement.

"It's true! He's so sweet to me…" Dawn fell silent, finding herself smirking childishly at their greeting that morning.  
"I'm happy you're over Ash, but I'm seriously worried for you!" Maylene switched off the television and turned to face her friend.

"There's nothing to worry about." Dawn assured her, but Maylene shook her head; "You may find Paul attractive but he's not a nice person."

Dawn began feeling a little annoyed at this; "You're being bias for your boyfriend."

"You are too!" Maylene fired up, clearly annoyed too. "You have to realise what a jerk he was last night! He could have ruined my career! And I remember you telling me how much you hated him and if it weren't for Brock then his head wouldn't be on his shoulders!"

"That was different! I didn't know him properly back then!" Dawn's fists balled up, by now her Pokémon had come to see what the noise was about. However, they couldn't get in because the doors and windows were closed.

"You knew what he was capable of, and loving is not something in his capabilities!" Maylene stood up, growling by now.

"At least he could actually control his Pokémon!" Dawn said, unable to stop herself, she gasped to herself silently, but she didn't have time to apologise as she was already tackled down to the floor.

"You take that back!" Maylene screeched, before being kicked off violently by Dawn. They stood up angrily, although Dawn knew fighting Maylene was wrong, and she would most likely be hurt due to her strength, she didn't care, she didn't start it.

"Just because you're a gym leader doesn't give you the right to push me around!" Dawn yelled; "Maybe Paul's right!" Her pulse was racing and her anger gave her no control over what she was saying, everything began spilling. "I don't see how you can blame Paul for making you down! If you'd have controlled your Pokémon you could have put up a fair fight!"

Maylene's fist smashed into Dawn like a mach punch, with nothing holding her back. They stood shocked for a second, before Dawn sneered and slapped her; it wasn't too long before they were engaged in what most would call a 'cat fight.' Even the door slamming open and Dawn's Pokémon panicking didn't stop them.

"What the-?" Reggie stood startled as Paul rushed over and pushed them apart, both panting heavily and growling at each other, their glares firing across at each other. Paul shot his own glare towards Dawn; "What do you think you're doing?"

"She started it. She insulted us." Dawn spat, her arms shaking as she balled up her fists. Maylene said nothing as she realised what had just happened.

"Maylene." Reggie sighed, pulling her away slightly and sitting her down. Paul had already turned to Dawn and silently ordered her to go upstairs.

"I'm sorry Reggie. You know what I think of your brother."

Reggie sighed and rubbed his temple; "It's not for you to decide, I know very well what Paul is like. But I've never seen him so close to someone the way he is with Dawn. I think she's doing him good."

"That's all very well, but it's at Dawn's expense. He could hurt her, Reggie; she's a good friend of mine."

Although Reggie wanted to laugh at this, as they didn't look like 'good friends,' he kept his face straight and nodded seriously; "If he does he'll have me to deal with. Dawn helped you and I'm grateful for that."

She smiled slightly, shuffling closer to Reggie. "I'm grateful I got you in the process." Reggie blushed and sat back, allowing her to relax on him.

"Maylene?"

"Yeah?" She whispered, sitting up to look at him.

"Remind me never to have an argument with you." He smirked, making her laugh and kiss him gently. She left her face close to his, their noses touching gently as they gazed into each other's eyes.

Paul sat relaxed on his bed, watching Dawn pace along the room as she gathered her belongings and threw them at her bag.

"That ungrateful bitch. How dare she!?"

Paul sighed; "Just drop it."

"She thinks she can push me around because she's a gym leader and 'she knows best!' Well she can think again! This is one girl who can stick up for herself."

"Will you shut up?" Paul snapped, causing her to stop dead in the middle of the room, and frowned at him. "You're fiery." He eventually chortled.

"It took you this long to figure that one out!?" She replied sarcastically, then continued to rant and collect her belongings. She pulled her hair out of her face to reveal a slight bruising on her cheek.

"Did she do that?" Paul frowned, suddenly losing his amusement for the event. Dawn nodded, but continued to cram her belongings away.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, pulling her chin up to inspect it. She nodded to shake him off, and continued to scowl. She zipped up her bag and heaved it onto her shoulder; "Come on, let's go."

Paul nodded; "Don't let me see her." He warned, taking her hand and pulling her out of his room. They found the couple sleeping on the sofa, Maylene lay across Reggie's chest carefully and his arm around her protectively. Paul rolled his eyes and continued to pull Dawn towards the door, but their footsteps awoke the lovers.  
The four looked at each other awkwardly, confirming Paul and Dawn's departure with eye contact alone. Dawn took her chance to look at Maylene with tear filled eyes, and hung her head as they continued out the door, their hands clenched tightly around each other.

They had made a fair distance away from the house without saying a word to each other until Dawn spoke up; "I-I'm sorry Paul…" She sighed, her voice quivering slightly as she held herself together.

"For what?"

"Showing you up… You're brother's going to hate me now." Her grip on his hand tightened on his and pulled it close to her, making him stop to look at her.

"Yeah well he doesn't like me either. So we don't need him." He pulled her to carry on walking, which she hurried after him and walked closer so she could whisper. "But Paul… You needed him once."

"Don't ever bring that up." He snapped, but quietly so nobody noticed. It wasn't until then that she noticed city folk giving a lot more attention than for the usual passersby. They were obviously looking at Paul, and then she noticed they were talking to each other too once far enough away. "Paul…"  
"Just ignore them."

"What are they doing?" She was practically stuck to his arm so she was close. He shrugged; "Because they like to gossip. We're obviously the newest piece of news."

She bit her lip, the way he said it made her feel like an object, and he was its owner. She could have sworn she heard a girl who was clearly her own age begin to gossip, along the lines of; "He could do way better. Look at her!" And several giggles after.

Dawn smirked, she had come to learn that people only put others down when they were jealous, and it didn't affect her because she was on Paul's arm and not them.

"Is that Paul?" The comment sounded similar to most, but the voice was enough to make her freeze on the spot. _Oh no…_

**Mwahahaaaa. =D**


	12. Emotion war

**Wow, srsly? Chappie Eleven! =o Thanks for the comments guys! I'm trying to write so much atm for you to keep you reading! ^^**

**Chapter Eleven**

She wasn't the only one to stiffen at the voice, Paul's grip became tighter; to the point where it stung and her knuckles were scraping around each other. He then let go of her as he turned and stood in front of her, either protecting or hiding her.

"What do _you_ want?" He said in that monotonous voice she hadn't heard in days. She peeked over his shoulder which was a lot taller that her eyelevel, to find none other than Ash frowning back at her.

"What are you doing Dawn?" He asked her, his brow furrowing even further. She instinctively looked to Paul and then lowered from her toes to hide behind him.

Her toes tapped nervously on the floor and she twiddled her fingers quickly; "I…Rescuing…Paul." She managed the mumble, though Ash barely heard and shouted an order to repeat herself.

"She's with me. What's it to you?" Paul smirked coolly, though by the way his fists were balling in his sleeves she could tell it was bothering him.

"You've got to be kidding me." Dawn rolled her eyes; she was getting slightly fed up with the disapproval of her choices. "You lost your chance, Ash."

"I'm not denying that, I still care about you though." He retorted, but Paul merely sneered and laughed. She could see that Ash was gradually getting closer, and became a little more nervous. Instead of hiding, she pushed herself to stand at Paul's side, glaring at Ash hatefully; "You don't care at all."

"Stay out of this." Paul growled at her, pulling her back to where she was before. She frowned at him in a 'what-do-you-think-you're-doing' manner, as did Ash, but a lot more furiously. "Don't talk to her like that."

"Don't tell me what to do." Paul growled back. She could already feel that this argument wasn't going to end with a battle. "Paul…" She muttered, but he hushed her quickly, infuriating her a little.

It had obviously made Ash want to rampage, as he lashed out his hands and shoved Paul backwards; "Don't you dare treat her like that." She frowned and pushed Ash back from Paul, whose eyebrow was twitching slightly with lack of patience. "I can handle myself Ash. Calm down." She growled at him, but he shrugged her off and clutched onto her arms; "Don't you see he's using you?"

"For what? What would I want to use her for?" Paul shouted, causing people to stare. Though the intention to this statement was to back them up as a pair, she couldn't help feeling a little objectified, and she wanted to fight her own battle.

"You know damn well what." Ash muttered, which was enough for Paul to break out in anger; "Just because you didn't realise what you could have had, doesn't mean I'm passing up on the chance." She watched his fists crunch as his fingers were crushed in his palms; "You're pathetic and never will beat me because you're an imbecile. You'll never cease the right opportunities and I got the girl."

The trophy; Dawn stood between them as merely an award, or so she felt. She found herself running towards the Pokémon center, hot tears once again paving her face. Nurse Joy gave her a room with a key rather than card so she could lock it from inside, understanding she wanted peace. It wasn't long before there was banging on the window, and Paul's muffled shouts as he pined for her. She ignored it as best she could, sobbing into her pillow furiously. She found herself crying herself to sleep that evening, as early as it was.

* * *

The sun had barely left the horizon's tip when she looked outside that morning, and the horrific pulse being sent through her temples was enough to make her want to stay asleep. She squinted as the sun penetrated her sensitive eyes, and threw the curtain back across the window. Knowing with such a headache she wouldn't get to sleep, she stood up and stretched, her head rushing and the border of her sight going grey and pixelated for a moment until she got used to being upright.

_Ow…_ She moaned to herself, as she shuffled into the bathroom to get ready. She pulled her hair up to a high, scruffy ponytail and left a few wispy, curly parts of her hair dangling by her ears. She brushed her fringe to the side continuously for a while, but gave up and left it as a full fringe. She changed into her clothes; choosing baby blue tights and belt today, instead of yesterday's bright pink. She pulled on grey ballet pumps, and put on a little make-up to stop her looking so tired and bruised.

She opened the door to her room quickly, to find Paul falling back as his leaning post was taken away. He woke as he banged into the floor, and looked up to her, as she looked down at him. She suppressed the immediate feeling to laugh, remembering that she was annoyed at him. She glared and walked over him, strutting down the stairs quickly and calmly, though her footsteps slammed down in anger. She heard him rushing after her, and eventually grabbed onto her wrist and pulling her to face him.

"Dawn will you stop being stubborn for one minute please?" He begged, but he spat it, slightly infuriated, which caused younger trainers that had just sat down for breakfast to stare. She looked at them and then glared back at him, leading him towards the kitchen as he still clutched onto her.

"Don't think that I see you like I said I did." He mumbled, but the sentence confused her, so she assumed he was apologising in his own way. "You know how I get when _he_'s there."

"_He_ is my best friend." She grumbled, not too amused at the way he spoke of Ash, this was the cause of her attempt to start a fight with him so long ago.

"I understand that, but don't expect me to be friendly to him." He muttered, looking away in slight disgust.

She rolled her eyes; "I don't, just don't be mean to him either."

"Okay." He sighed, giving up entirely. It caused her to choke, Paul; giving in?

He smirked at her shocked expression, pulling her wrist so she tumbled into him. He pulled his arms over hers, and she hooked her own around and onto his shoulders. She rested her head onto his shoulder, which was comfortably level to her ear so she could nuzzle into his neck. He rubbed her back gently, but she got the feeling he wasn't doing it to comfort her, but himself.

"Why is everyone so against us?" She asked rhetorically, but he chose to answer her anyway; "It's not you they're against."

She sighed; "They just don't understand you." To which he laughed at her. "And you do?"

She shrugged slightly, causing his hands to fall down to her waist; "I know you better than them?" She almost asked him for his approval to this.

"I think you know me better than I do myself." He sighed, holding her tighter as he did so, not letting her move an inch away from him; like he needed her.

Now it was her turn to rub his back, she withheld the need to choke, and fought tears back even though he couldn't see her eyes as they were under his jaw. The undeniable urge to cry was at war with her need to support him, and she could no longer juggle the feeling of anger at him.

"I will fight every battle for us." She mumbled, but it was loud and clear in his ears.

She felt his cheek bump into her forehead gently; "and I shall forever gloat about my girl." She could feel the deep pitched words rattle in his throat as they rang out of his lips, and for once she did not feel objectified or owned, she felt protected and crowned as something he was proud of.

"This is all very sweet, but I'm afraid it will stop here." The man's voice sent shivers down her spine without a thought from her as she froze in fear.

Paul's reactions weren't fast enough to move her away from the bang, which the impact in her back caused her to moan, or scream in pain; she couldn't remember which left her mouth.

The electric pulsed through her as she collapsed at such speed and landed on Paul. She lay as he scrambled onto his feet, releasing a Pokémon that she couldn't remember.

All she could think about was the pain that was surging through her nervous system, screaming in agony as it did so.

The electric was cut off from her back, giving an immediate effect of release, but her body was still shaking in shock.

She could hear Paul shouting orders as she curled into a ball through reflex.

She could hear that Admin shouting orders back and the attacks colliding.

She eventually heard the sound of growling as an Arcanine pounced over her and onto the Admin, allowing Paul to return his Pokémon-whichever one it was- and lift her up into his arms.

The officer shouted for Paul to get her out of the center, which was now deserted from all the children. She pulled her eyes up weakly to look at his face and asked his faintly where they were going.

It was only because she was so close to his face that she understood him; "We're getting out of here. Far away, we're heading for Hoenn."

* * *

**I'm in france this week so I might not be able to write until next weekend, but it's the holidays then so I'll be writing a lot more often. ^^**

**This has also been editted for those of you who read it the day I submitted it because I found some mistakes and I must have lost the enter button. ^-^'**


	13. Questioning faith

**So I started whilst I could, I thought you might be a little impatient, so this is my last update for a little while, I'm in France until Friday, working Saturday and Sunday, so the next update will probably be Monday or Tuesday. Sorry! ^^**

**Chapter twelve.**

She woke up with intense back pain, which ached every time a hand brushed past a certain point. She opened her eyes lazily, they were slightly blurry for a moment, but became accustomed to looking at her saviour. She noticed he was staring blankly at the wall, as he cradled her on a bed, she was lay across his chest and held on with his arms, and her legs were curled up at on his hips, his legs bent up to stop them from sliding.

He realised she was awake and turned the left side of mouth, indicating a hello in his own way; a way she had gotten used to now. "Where are we?"

"On a ferry, you have no idea how hard it is to get a ticket salesman to sell a guy with an unconscious girl in his arms two tickets…" He laughed, to which she giggled; it made her head rush and her eyes squint. He frowned and brushed her fringe out of her eyes; "Are you okay?"

She nodded, sliding her hand up his chest to hug his neck and nuzzle closer. She heard him sigh gently and felt him smile, his grip tightened onto her waist. The moment would have been perfect if they weren't interrupted again; this time by her appetite.

She giggled even more; "I guess I'm hungry."

"You and you're bloody stomach." He sighed mockingly, but truth be told; he was ravenous. She smiled sarcastically, and stood up, her legs still extremely wobbly and her head rushed, her vision dizzy. "Careful." He mumbled, steadying her as he pushed a bag toward her; "I hope you're capable of getting dressed yourself."

Her face lit up as she looked at the bag; "You brought me clothes!?" Her voice became high-pitched; the sound of Dawn's delight.

"And shoes." He mumbled in addition. She frowned, but nodded; "Why?" Her question was left unanswered, as he turned around and shrugged, back to his mysterious self.

She shuffled into the bathroom, and washed, dried and styled her hair so it was in Hollywood style curls. She pulled the dress out of its bag and gasped; it was a stunning backless dress with thick straps that crossed between her shoulder blades in a beautiful ivory colour. It was hemmed with a thin strip of black lace along the back, which continued to meet around her stomach. It also was embroidered at the end of the dress, which stopped at mid-chin. Her shoes were equally as beautiful; black with silver straps and the heels obviously sensible but tall enough to make her closer to Paul's height.

She grinned and stepped into the dress carefully, pulling the lace bow to make it fit to her slender waist exactly. The rest fell into place and her reflection confirmed a handsome sight. After placing her feet into her cushioned shoes, - Which were clearly not cheap at all, - She slid her silver clips into her hair; pulling the odd curl back elegantly. After she was entirely satisfied with her look, she put some make up on to look natural but perfect. She nodded in satisfactory after applying gently glittered lip gloss, then grabbed her bag full of her casual clothes.

She glided across the room in front of Paul and swirled cutely to show him the dress. He smirked as he looked at her thoroughly; "I was right."

She nodded in approval, swaying side to side so it wafted cutely around her. "You don't look too bad yourself." She giggled, as he stood up; he was wearing a smart, dark pair of straight jeans, with a slightly lighter blazer jacket, a casual white shirt underneath. She had to admit; together they looked a very smart, cool young couple. He took her elbow delicately, and led her out of the door. She only realised at that moment how upper class the ferry actually was, and when she thought about it, the bedroom was equally luxurious.

Once sat down on a private table of the ferry's classy restaurant, they ordered a drink each and took a menu gratefully. "I feel bad now, Paul, how can you afford all of this?" She kept her eye line on the menu, occasionally glancing at him; staring back at her.

"I've done quite a bit of battling… And won them." He murmured, careful not to boast too obviously.

"So have I." She raised an eyebrow at him, believing she had trapped him into surrendering again. Unfortunately he disappointed her; "so you won't mind paying for the meal then." He laughed as the waiter placed two glasses at their table. She glanced at him appreciatively, and then frowned back at Paul; "That's not what I was saying, but I will if you-"

"I wouldn't ask you to do that, I was joking." He snorted, lifting the menu as he relaxed into his chair.

She sighed and rested her head onto her clasped hands which were leant on the table; "I don't get your jokes."

"Makes me mysterious, no?" She nodded back at him, which caused him to smirk; "I've been told."

She stiffened; "By who?" her voice choked, though she took a sip of her drink to pretend she was thirsty. His smirk widened as he tapped his nose; he wasn't answering her. She thought about it and came to the conclusion that he was doing it on purpose to wind her up, so she refused to play the game.

"I take it you want me to pay for the dress too, huh?" She kept her face straight as she looked at her menu and bit her lip, and he frowned. "Either you get my joke or you're seriously dense."

"So I'm mysterious too." She winked, he rolled his eyes.

"Are you ready to order?" The waiter asked, and Paul looked over to Dawn, who nodded; "I'll have the Mushroom Stroganoff please."

"The Vegetable Virtuoso, please." And the waiter walked off.

"What would you like to do tonight then? Seeing as you slept the day away…" He sighed mockingly, but she tapped her fingers impatiently; "I don't even remember what happened…"

"They tasered you." He said bluntly, sipping his drink as he eyed her expression; she was oddly calm about it.

"I don't see how electrocuting me would bring Mesprit out of its hiding…" She drifted off into thought; her first day of being a trainer seemed so long ago.

"Answer my question anyway; what do you want to do tonight?" He pushed the question, but she shrugged to his disappointment. He patted his pockets to find a booklet, and handed it to her; "Well you decide."

She flicked through the booklet, everything looked so old fashioned; ballroom dancing, wine testing, etc. She sighed and continued to flick, aware of him staring at her. The silence wasn't long as the food came, giving her the chance to put the book down, which she received an off look from Paul, so she smiled awkwardly; "Can't we decide after, my mood after eating might make a decision." He nodded and thanked the waiter, who handed them cutlery and wished them a good meal.

They ate mainly in silence, exchanging the odd compliments to the chef, but nothing even close to conversation. He eventually finished, and waited for her; "Dessert?"

She shook her head furiously; "I'm stuffed." She patted her stomach happily, her face showing an expression of satisfaction. He laughed; "That's new."

"Hey now…" She warned, wagging her finger at him and using that hand to clasp her drink. The plates were taken away, and the check paid and tipped, allowing them to leave.

"Now what shall we do?" He took her hand gently, and she smiled; "Let's go up to the top deck."

"Why?" He questioned, but she just smiled; "You'll see."

They made their way up by taking the lift, to which they took advantage of the privacy. She led him out onto the deck, and by the bars to face the beautiful scenery of water reflecting the moon's light. The sound of a band's music could be heard loud and clear from the floor below. The waters were brimming with glowing lights from Pokémon under the surface, Lanturn and Lumineon led other Pokémon through the darkness with their precious light, taking them to their homes for the night. Further in the distance, by the horizon, she noticed a Wailord blow water through its spout, and splash its gigantic fin to propel it through its journey. It was silhouetted against the moon's beams, and shadowed along the bubbling surface. The music was harmonious to the beauty of the sight; slow, peaceful and at a delicately high pitch like a lullaby.

"Beautiful isn't it?" She sighed, gazing at the moon's wide face. He hummed in agreement, though he wasn't that interested. Instead he turned and pulled at her waist, grabbing onto her hand with his spare one. He smiled suggestively, to which she silently agreed by placing her other hand onto his shoulder correctly. He began to sway her around, twirling her as he watched her eyes permanently.

"Where did you learn to dance?" She almost laughed, but she was showing a more interested expression. He shrugged; "My brother taught me, told me it would 'woo' the girls."

"You're brother's right." She said, noticing him stiffen slightly at her words. "Sorry." She mumbled, but he had already relaxed before she said it. He didn't reply, instead he listened to the music and led her along the wood as she glided after him in time with the gentle beat. She would occasionally see the moon in her peripheral vision and sigh at how romantic it felt, she was almost giddy and her knees weren't at their best anyway, she just thanked Paul mentally for holding her so tightly.

It felt so short, but she realised they had twirled around the edge of the whole top deck by the time the band began to slow the song to a stop. He placed the hand he was holding onto his other shoulder, and wrapped his spare hand around to meet the other on her lace covered back.

She didn't have much time to register, but he had already leant quite a way before she realised she was automatically rising onto her toes. He did not try to take the kiss any further than their lips locking, to savour the romantic moment. His lips clamped gently onto her bottom lip, and hers did the same to his top. She closed her eyes so her senses could heighten, she never realised how her back would tingle in the places his hands had left. How his lips lingered away from her to make her hungry for more, and how his strong arms wrapped around her and squeezed her slightly so all her movements were close to him, like he was clinging onto the moment too, as if it were the last moment they would share with each other for eternity.

They came to a stop, and rested their foreheads on each other so their eyes were the only thing they could see. He stared at her Articuno blue eyes, such a rare colour that glistened with such magnificence, the pain in the pit of his stomach made him ache with adoration for her, but his mind was screaming in conflict, telling him he was being a foolish romantic.

"I love you." He whispered, which knocked her back in a state of shock far more pleasurable than being tasered.

"What?" It wasn't the answer he expected, but she pulled away from him awkwardly. He frowned and continued the silence until she thought it through; "Are you sure?"

He nodded back at her; "I've been mad about you since I spoke to you in Oreburgh."

"It's a big thing to say though…" She continued to mumble; "I mean, you shouldn't say it unless you mean it. Throwing them around carelessly can break a girl's heart."

"I'm not exactly the sort of person to say something like that to anyone."

She nodded, it wasn't something she could disagree with. "Are you sure?" She worried, and he rolled his eyes as he got a little impatient.

"I love you too then."

**Okay, so the shippiness is kicking in and Paul's character is kicking out. But don't worry, I don't keep characters out of character for too long; that would be selfish. =]**

**I'll see all your reviews on Saturday!**

**Ciao! **


	14. And the defence collapsed

**Well aren't you all lucky! I've got up when I need so much sleep after my France trip. Here's some more! This chapter is heavily focussed on Dawn's thoughts because I think you need an insight on her a lot more. And don't worry; Paul will soon be back in character when he meets the latest character. And they say **_**thirteen**_** is an unlucky number… (Hint hint. *Evil grins.*)**

**Chapter Thirteen**

"You're shaking."

"No I'm not. I'm _shivering."_ She corrected him, nodding her head in a matter of fact way; "There's a difference." Although she was lying, she was actually extremely hot under the moon's reflected rays. She couldn't let him know the doubts that were screaming around her mind.

He nodded and took off his blazer to wrap around her, she gave a false smile as genuinely as possible; which seemed to have worked. _Trust him to be gentlemanly now… _She groaned in thought. She couldn't really explain why she was feeling the way she was, but her stomach was giving her butterflies so she overlooked the qualms.

As the music started again, this time far more slowly and an even lighter beat to it, he shrugged and pushed her towards the inside.

"Paul?"

He grunted as a yes.

"What are you going to do about your badges?" She wondered, now that they were starting a fresh start for her safety, she couldn't help but think about all her ribbons she was giving up. He must have been thinking something similarly.

"I have eight Hoenn badges."

"But that means you have nothing to do…?" She wondered; the thought of boring him whilst she fought her contest battles was not something that she wished to do.

"I'll restart them." He said plainly, causing her to frown.

"You're doing too much for me…" She drifted off to question herself; should she have just left on her own? _No, don't be stupid, it's not like I decided to leave in the first place! Paul chose to come here; we could have gone somewhere else… _

"Let's go to bed." He suggested in an ordering tone, giving a yawn as he let go of her. She stopped him and grinned playfully; "Aww, but we were having so much fun." She drummed her fingers lightly on his chest, but he remained rigid and still.

"You should get some sleep." He insisted, pulling the card key out of his pocket and pushed his way past her towards the door.

She sighed; "Fine, I'll just get out of this beautiful dress you brought me." She grumbled in slight disappointment. He simply smirked, and walked over to his bed to collapse onto it.

Once changed, she walked over to her own bed, to find he had already gotten into his bed; breathing lightly as an indication of his unconsciousness. She sighed and buckled onto her own bed, slamming the side of her face into the pillow and curling into a ball as she wrapped the quilt around her. She stared at his mass of dark lavender hair drooping plainly onto his own pillow. She could just about see his mouth pouted stiffly open as his breath clicked at the back of his throat. She smirked at his gentle snore and lithely fisted hands rested beside his face.

_I should tell Mom… _She worried, realising she hadn't even told her mother of her whereabouts, or even her company. _What will she think? What if she doesn't think I'm old enough!? _The sick feeling in her stomach cramped enough to make her want to cry, whether it was the boat rocking or the thought of Paul being rejected _again_, she wasn't sure. What she did know was that if it were both of the motives; she would be running for the bathroom at that moment.

He rolled onto his back quickly and quietly, leaving one of his hands to hide his face and the other rested across his stomach. The scars he was showing across his thin wrist gave her a reminder of how alone he once felt, and how she ached to want to keep him company. For all she knew, it was her motherly nature and deep sympathy, but deep inside her mind in a place she was unaware of yet, she was telling herself she was in love, there was no doubt about it. This was one she wouldn't get over.

She sighed softly in contempt, rolling onto her back as well. She draped one arm above her head, her fingers rested on the side of her forehead, and the other was dangling off the bed. It took a couple of hours for her to even feel drowsy, but even then her eyes weren't sagging into slumber. She stole a glance at Paul, who had now thrown his quilt onto the floor and his face was in a state of grimace. She frowned, and listened to the growl in the back of his throat as his closed eyes flickered around in their sockets. He was restless, and he eventually flung himself up to sit. She sat up too, her hair wild from movement, yet his stayed perfectly neat.

"Did you have a bad dream?" She whispered, to which he nodded; "It wasn't pleasant." He muttered, watching her as she stood. She had her arms open for a hug, to which he welcomed with only one of his own. He snaked it around her curvaceous body, whilst she clung onto his one muscular shoulder. He always knew she was curvy, but feeling her slender waist only made him realise it more.

He lay back and let her pull the quilt back over him, waiting patiently until she settled too. He closed his eyes unwillingly, not wanting to look away from her, but his tired body battled with his besotted mind.

"Tell me about it." She mumbled, as she shuffled slightly to rest her head beside his ear. She watched his magnificent eyes patiently as he looked around the room carefully. She was tactful in how she brushed her hand across his wrist innocently, and then slid her fingers through his cupped palm. She watched him wince as he watched her, but her expression did not falter from its calm, relaxed position. He glanced at her to notice this, but couldn't bear to look at her icy yet warm eyes smother him into opening up.

He felt her kiss his shoulder, right between the gap of his collar bone and shoulder blade. When she rested her head back onto the pillow, to which he felt his own head rise, his lips upturned to the mild gust of her breathe brushing over him. She seemed so delicate yet her presence was strong, and it comforted him like no one else was able to. She replaced the empty feeling of anger and hatred he felt all his life with an overwhelming need to protect her and keep her by his side.

"Paul?" She urged him, and he looked to her. She sighed; "You're not telling me then."

He watched her look away, blinking a few times before looking back with a fresher, happier glint in her eyes. "Sorry." He mumbled.

"That's fine Paul, I'm not going to push you into talking to me; I know you struggle to."

He raised an eyebrow at her; "How much do you already know?"

She giggled quietly; "About the dream? Not much." She mocked, but he rolled his eyes. "What has Reggie told you?"

"He never says much, I know more from what you've suggested." She lied, she knew a lot from Nurse Joy, whether it was correct or not was the only problem.

"What have I _suggested_?" His voice sounded awkward, and had a hint of nervousness.

She contemplated how to respond, she knew she had to be careful not to drop Nurse Joy in trouble. "Well…" She begun, clearing her throat; "You said you were lonely, and you shouted at Reggie about your father leaving… If I'm correct in putting two and two together…" She drifted off, watching his eyes drift away from her words and into his own thoughts.

"Am I right?"

He blinked out of his thoughts and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, then sighed; "Father was never supportive of me."

Her glistening eyes turned to a drizzly rain-blue as her frown furrowed deep between then; "but Reggie did?"

Paul almost laughed, but ended up snorting and looking away from her; "Who else than my perfect brother. No one gave me a chance, I made my own life. I was given Turtwig from my Brother because he didn't need one. I was under his shadow, with my dad," he said with a growl in his voice; "pushing him along the way."

She didn't realise that it was Paul who was talking. Paul; of all people was opening up to her. Instead she concentrated on what he was saying, reading into every line, giving him the support which he longed for all his life.

_Maybe I can change him. _She wondered, but reminded herself to keep focus when he finally started to continue.

"I envied Reggie for how good he got, with the help that any trainer needs. So when he gave it up I was livid. I guess he didn't see it the way I did."

"Paul… Reggie is good at what he does now. He enjoys it-" She was cut off as he spat; "Well I should have got that support then."

"You don't need it anymore." She hushed him, placing two fingers on his lips. "You're a great trainer, and if you weren't you wouldn't have been rivals with Ash. And then we wouldn't have met, right?"

His eyes lit up at the opening; "I guess if you put it that way…" He rolled onto his side to hover over her face dominantly, though she wasn't going to be submissive. She tilted her head away from him, and shoved him to the side onto his back. "Go to sleep." She scolded as she turned her back from him.

"No kiss goodnight?" He said cheekily, but she shrugged her shoulders; "You had one when you went to bed."

He sighed the final sound of that day, and the lights went out.

* * *

A knock on the door made her stir from the slumber which she wanted to cling onto so badly. She smoothed down her hair and hurried over to the door. It was a sailor, who looked nervously at her; "We've arrived at the port, m-miss."

She nodded; "Thanks, we'll be out in a minute." The Sailor waggled his head awkwardly and shuffled off quickly. She frowned and closed the door. "What was that about?" She muttered to herself, but Paul clearly overheard her.

"What do you expect, you aren't exactly dressed, for one, and two you look like _that_ in them."

She frowned and looked down at herself; her pyjamas consisted of short shorts, and a vest, both pink with blue hems around.

"I'll take that as a compliment." She yawned, making her way into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror at herself, and spotted a summer dress hanging casually on the door's peg. She eyed it hungrily, rushing over once clean and pulling it on with excitement. It was quite short, but mid thigh was her usual length of clothes, and the bottom was rimmed with floral patterns. It was strapless and navy, so her silver necklace looked elegant against her bare skin. She pulled on her plain ballet pumps to finish and nodded in acceptance of her newest outfit.

"He did it again." She wandered out of the bathroom, spinning slowly and flicking her hair so she could look over her shoulder at him. She raised her head to watch his face as he got closer, the height difference getting bigger as the distance between them decreased. He kissed her lightly on the forehead, and then led her out of the room by her hand.

They reached the Pokémon Center in no time; it wasn't too long a walk as it was a small town. Small as it was, it still looked extremely modern, with a medium sized gym centred in the town, and the center beside it.

"I think I should call Mom." She looked at him, letting go of his hand and wandering over to the phone booths.

"Oh my! Is that you Dawn!?"

She spun on her heels to find her far too elegant friend. Her mousy brown hair looped under her now blue bandana, and her matching blue shorts were covered with a white shirt dress.

Dawn's eyes widened as she realised; "May! It's so good to see you!" She ran over, embracing her and forgetting her mother completely.

"Is Ash with you?" She smiled hopefully, scanning the room for her close friends to no avail. Dawn shook her head; "Actually I'm travelling with someone else."

"Oh?" May raised an eyebrow, as Paul walked over in his iconic way; his eyes down and hands in his pockets.

"I don't think you met Paul. This is May, she-"

"Came second in the Wallace cup." He held out his hand, his palm up so she took his from above and shook it in an old fashioned way. Dawn half expected him to ask; _How do you do? _Her joke caught herself off guard and she snorted in the poor attempt to not look quite so silly. They looked at her oddly anyway.

"What brings you to New Mauville?" May asked, turning back to Dawn, she looked to Paul for help, but ended up telling the truth; "We've had a little Team Galactic trouble." May nodded, they'd been on the news a lot and knew of Dawn's sighting of Mesprit.

"Well, you should come to the contest here! Me and my friend thought it would be a good return if we tried for a new ribbon. The contest hall is new to this town you see!" He high pitched squeak was full of excitement, and made Paul wince slightly, but he didn't make it too noticeable.

"Sounds fun, you don't mind do you?" She looked to Paul, who shrugged. May clapped her hands in excitement, then grabbed onto Dawn's wrist; "Come on, you should come and meet Drew!"

"Drew? As in, _the_ Drew?" She stopped herself using her heels, and May merely nodded, clearly used to being overshadowed from time to time. Paul watched her check herself in anything reflective as they continued walking and began feeling sick, he walked in time to keep by her side, but eventually stopped just before the girls did.

"Drew, you remember Dawn on the telly?"

Dawn froze on the spot as he glanced at her then smiled; "I do, that's quite the Ambipom you have."

_Had. Ouch. _Her stomach curdled at the thought.

She shook herself awake and bowed her head; "I can't believe you know me."

"Well May got quite a bit of inspiration when she returned from Sinnoh." She looked over to May, who was now blushing.

The next part disturbed her slightly, as she caught him looking at her dress innocently, but the glint in his eye was full of life, the cocky behaviour he always portrayed when she saw him on the television.

Paul clearly noticed this too and wasn't impressed; "we have to get a room for the night if you're going to the contest, Dawn." He spat her name as an order; "It was nice meeting you." He glared at Drew, clearly warning him in that masculine way any male would. Drew didn't flicker, barely even noticing it, and carried his signature smirk across his face with ease. This was one rival that threatened Paul, and she couldn't understand why.

**Haha, thirteen is indeed unlucky for Paul.**

**A very long chapter I must say, and I probably confused you with the amount of detail but I wanted you to know everything that was going on in my imagination for that moment, as it was indeed, very important. ^^**


	15. Telling Mother

**Chapter Fourteen.**

As soon as she found their room she was quick to change into her tights, so that she felt a little more covered up. She knew this was probably not the best of ideas seeing as the sun was out and the solar panels weren't making it any cooler in this city.

Paul was quick to notice too, he frowned as he looked at her back in her playsuit; "why so late in the day?"

"I was getting a little cold." She said, a little too fast. She scowled to herself at the stupid excuse, because now he had a worried expression. "Are you okay? You haven't got a cold have you?"

She shook her head quickly; "No, but I have to go sign up for the contest tomorrow and practice." She watched his blank expression get a little more vacant, as if he wasn't interested. "Would you like to come and watch?"

He was slightly shocked; "Would you like me to watch?"

She rolled her eyes; "That's a no then." He was quick to reply; "I didn't say that, I think I will watch you, won't hurt to watch your style."

"Yeah, see if you can get a few pointers." She teased, flicking her hair as she turned to head for the door. She heard him mumble something under his breath as he walked after her, hands firmly in his pockets again.

"I'll be out in a little while, I have to call my mother too, remember?" She tapped his nose as she stopped in front of him. He grumbled something about being peckish, and then briskly walked out of the center. She sighed and walked over to the booths again, praying for no more distractions, it would be just her luck to be 'coincidentally' interrupted by Zoey, or Gary, or anyone as she attempted to do something so important.

* * *

She tapped in the numbers rhythmically, knowing where to press without even looking. She wasn't shocked when her mother picked up within three rings.

"Oh hello Dawn! You haven't rang me in ages! I started to get a little worried…"

Dawn sweat-dropped; "Ahh, yeah… No need to worry…" She painted on her best smile as genuinely as possible.

"How is Ash and Brock?"

"I think they're okay." She wasn't lying, she just didn't know for certain. Her mother picked up on the choice of words; "You're not with them anymore?"

"No, I had a fight with Ash… And now…" Johanna was quick to respond; "Young love, you'll be fine, go and talk to him."

"Mum it's not like that!" She protested, blushing an intense pink colour; partly from anger. "I'm not anywhere near him now anyway, I'm not travelling with them anymore."

"You're travelling alone?" Dawn picked up on the worry through the attempt to be supportive. She shook her head; "Actually, I'm with someone else." She bit her lip; "My boyfriend." She mumbled it but it wasn't something her mother would miss even if she had said it in a foreign language.

"A boyfriend!? Do I know him?" She could hear the enthusiasm in her voice and grimaced at it. "I don't think so."

"Your age?"

"A year older than me." Her mum then nodded in approval and mumbled something about girls maturing quicker anyway. "What's his name? Is he there? Can I meet him soon?"

"Paul, and erm…" The last question caught her out; "That's the problem, when I said I was away from Ash…"

Her mother frowned at her; "Where are you?" She demanded, which caused Dawn to sweat nervously; "Hoenn." She muttered, knowing her mother wouldn't mishear this either.

"What? Hoenn!? What are you doing in a different _region _without even talking to me!?" Her voiced raised with part concern, part rage.

"Mom! We were continuously getting attacked by Team Galactic! We didn't have a choice but to get out of there as soon as possible! They tried to drown Paul!" It was her wise choice not to throw in anything they did to her, partly for her mother's frail, worried state, the other part because it sent shivers down her spine.

"You never told me this! Are you okay now?" She was practically pushing her nose onto the camera screen.

"Mom! I'm fine now, I'm starting my coordinating here to start a fresh. We never told you because we were being followed, I'm telling you now though. Paul is probably safer to be with that _Ash! _He won't let anything happen to me, promise."

Johanna bit her lip and thought for a moment, knowing very well that Ash was good at protecting her daughter, if this Paul was better at it…

"You know Reggie, the breeder, right?" Dawn continued her persuasion to sway her mother, who nodded; everybody knew Reggie. "Paul is his brother."

That worked, her mother clapped her hands in delight; "Well if he's half as nice as Reggie you're a lucky girl Dawn!"

"Aha, yeah…" She laughed nervously, Paul was nowhere near half. "Is he there? I should be able to greet my daughter's boyfriend…"

Dawn shook her head; "He's gone to get some food for us, and I'm going to train for the contest tomorrow."

Contests were the best distraction for Johanna, and Dawn knew it. "Wow, so soon? Are you ready?" Dawn nodded; "Paul is going to help me." She lied, but she didn't want to seem big headed.

"Okay, but I'm still not happy about you telling me sooner, you better promise you'll ring me every other day, if not more!"

Dawn laughed, this time genuinely; "Of course Mum, promise. No need to worry, right?"

Her mother joined in with a chortle, and bid her farewell and good luck. Then the screen went blank. She sighed and placed the receiver down, then fumbled around her bag for her pokeballs.

* * *

She hurried out of the center, and found a quiet area on the outskirts of the town; it looked like a park as it was perfectly flat.

"Mamoswine!" She called as she released her large Pokémon, and hugged it lightly; "You've done a lot for me recently, fancy winding down and having some fun?" She asked it, but before she got a reply, she was interrupted.

"I'd use Mamoswine for the battling stages. It's powerful." She turned to see Paul sat relaxed on the grass a little bit away from them. He wasn't looking at them, but at the grass beneath him. "What other Pokémon do you have?"

She released Piplup, Pachirisu and Buneary. They all stretched and hugged their cherished trainer. Buneary hopped down and looked around eagerly, but to her disappointment, Pikachu wasn't there to tackle.

Paul sighed slightly at their cuteness, making Dawn stiffen, ready to defend her Pokémon. "I'd say Pachirisu; I've never seen you use it."

It was true Pachirisu hadn't been out in a while, she nodded and the other two walked over to Mamoswine so they could watch.

"Ambipom was always great at helping with appeals…" She groaned, struggling to find inspiration. She heard Paul scoff; he clearly wasn't supportive of Contest battles at all.

"Paul, can I battle you?" She raised an eyebrow at him as she picked up her tiny electric Pokémon. He sighed and stood up; "Why?" She rolled her eyes back at him; "So I can get some inspiration out of it. Ash used to help me all the time." She smirked, he was in a jealous enough state as it was, and bringing Ash into the conversation was enough. "Fine," he mumbled throwing out a Pokeball to reveal his Electabuzz.

He quickly ordered a thunder, to which the large yellow Pokémon obeyed. Dawn had watched enough of Ash's battles with Pikachu to know that holding her ground was probably the best option. "Let's try a charge!"

The small mouse Pokémon contracted all of its limbs and began to stock up on the Electabuzz's electricity.

"Brick Break!"

"Use sweet kiss!" Dawn replied, as Pachirisu set up for its hopeful defence. Electabuzz stopped in its tracks and waited for a new order, as contact with it would be unwise.

"Thunder it!" Paul growled, clearly getting into his rhythm. It looked wary, but obeyed anyway. The collision was amazing in Dawn's eyes, but Paul just saw it as a nuisance. "Now continue your Brick Break!"

Dawn was too astounded by sweet kiss which had bubbled into a crackling statue of a heart to notice, Pachirisu barely dodged, and called for its trainer.

"Super fang!" She clicked back into the battle, every so often taking a glance at it continue to crackle. Pachirisu changed and clamped onto the Electabuzz's attacking arm. It growled in agony, waiting for an order.

"Thunder punch!" He yelled across the roaring Electabuzz, who used its other arm to swing at the Pachirisu, who couldn't do a thing about it. It was thrown towards the beautiful heart, and sank into it.

"Wait!" Dawn yelled in excitement, "I can so use that!" She squealed, running over to her Pachirisu. Paul stood and watched her, clearly irritate by the interruption. He was quick to calm down when she ran over with Pachirisu in her arms and raised onto her tiptoes to reach his lips.

"Thank you." She grinned, but he just frowned back; "I didn't do anything?"

"You inspired me!" She squashed herself and Pachirisu into him to hug him, to which he patted her awkwardly and let her run to the Pokémon center.

* * *

"Hey." She was greeted as she entered the room; she looked around and spotted the owner of the silky voice. "Oh."

It was Drew, who wasn't making it easy for her. He was everything Paul wasn't; charming, sweet and a coordinator. Something she dreamed about when she was a little girl. It made it that much worse that she looked up to him at the beginning of her journey, until she started believing in herself.

He was undeniably beautiful, his face sculpted to be soft and angelic, with the jagged edges to make him more masculine. His hair was groomed to perfection, his soft, glowing green eyes that glistened with adoration. He was far more readable than Paul, but now she was happily home in Paul's 'shell,' the thought of even innocently holding Drew's hand was enough to make her cry.

To her disapproval, he flicked his hand in front of her face to swizzle a burgundy rose in front of her. Already she could hear mutters around her from girls who clearly knew of him. She fought herself to not blush in anger through fear that he might misread it.

"Thanks." She made no effort to be enthusiastic, but her mother had taught her better than to be rude. She plucked it from his fingers carefully, so she did not make contact with him.

"I have never seen someone with such beautiful blue eyes." He stared at them intensely, getting a little too close for comfort.

"May has blue eyes." She stood up straight, looking away quickly and hurrying over to Nurse Joy. She failed to realise he had followed her and was leaning smoothly on the counter. Nurse Joy spluttered her words in his presence, which was having the same affect on Dawn but for different reasons.

"Is Paul who you're travelling with?" He asked innocently, but she noticed that they hadn't been introduced; May had obviously already warned him. She nodded and turned away from him, heading over to the table.

"He's not a friendly lad is he?" He sat beside her, making her sigh. This was a mistake; he took her cry for help completely the wrong way.

"He's clearly not good enough for you. I see the way he treats you-" She cut him off immediately; "You've seen us for a day."

Awkward silence, although she was relaxing in thought; "and you think _you're _good enough for me?"

He shook his head; "No, but I might as well try." She rolled her eyes; "Well you're wasting your time." She looked to Nurse Joy who was calling her, and walked away from him. After collecting Pachirisu, she briskly walked for the exit to hear him call after her; "Or am I?" He chuckled, sending a wave of shivers down her spine.

**Lmao, pretty in character for Drew me thinks; at least his early days being as big headed as he was.**

**I hope you don't mind the hint of anti-contestshipping, but I'm not against it at all! In fact I love Contest shipping, it's just good to strengthen Ikarishipping with. ****Plus Gary was waaaaay to obvious. =D**

**Well, bit of a pointless chapter but it's for plot building so be patient! ^^**


	16. Best Friend Interogation

**It is soooo contest time. **

**Chapter 15**

She headed back towards the park, where Paul now had two hot dogs in his hands; one half eaten. She made a quick detour towards the bin, praying he didn't see her throw the rose away.

To her disappointment, he did; "Is _he_ bothering you?" He frowned as he handed her the food. She sighed and shrugged, pretending not to care as she sat down.

"He's honestly not a problem Paul, there's no need to feel threatened." She smirked as Paul stiffened; "I don't. Why would I?"

"Okay." She assured him sarcastically, rolling her eyes and biting into her hot dog. They had eaten them pretty fast and it was enough to keep their hunger satisfied for a while.

"You don't believe me?" Paul finally asked her, pressing his thumb on the corner of her mouth and wiping away the ketchup. She blushed in embarrassment of how messy she was at eating, something that Ash must have rubbed off on her without her realising, but shook her head with an evil smirk across her face. He grumbled something under his breath and lay onto his back to relax.

She sighed; "I'm pretty much happy with you," she whispered as she rolled onto her stomach and leant on her elbows to see his reaction.

"Pretty much isn't very good." He muttered, "Why not completely? _I'm _completely happy."

"You don't look it." She protested, making him laugh. Her face remained serious; "You're not _completely _happy, I can see it in your eyes."

His laugh came to a halt as he realised she was staring deeply at him. "My eyes aren't very good liars then." She nodded victoriously; "my eyes are good at reading emotions though."

He frowned; "Is that something to do with your link to Mesprit?" Her eyes widened with enlightenment; "Maybe! What if it is?"

He shrugged; "I'm a lucky boy then." He mocked her, rolling his eyes and chortling to himself as he looked up at the clouds.

She wondered what he meant, and found herself drifting into her thought again. If she had got a link with Mesprit, that would make her a very strong emotional person. Was that what was drawing her to Paul so much; His lack of emotion? Was it her duty to fill his hole where emotion was supposed to be felt? She concluded that it was her destiny, and that she, in fact, was a lucky girl.

"Very lucky." She mumbled, mainly to herself. He raised an eyebrow; "I think your green haired friend has made your head expand a little."

She gasped and turned her nose up from him; "Just because I have male interest."

"I don't want male interest thanks." He scoffed, but she shook her head; "You know what I mean."

"I have female interest." He said simply, watching her snooty facial expression falter, it wasn't the first time he had mentioned this to her; "So don't tell me I'm jealous." He concluded victoriously.

She looked at him and frowned playfully; "It's a good job I love you because my fist would have imprinted in your face by now." She watched him smile smugly, muttering "ditto" back to her as he continued to look at the sky. She relaxed and rolled over closer to him again, now on her back with her head rested on his arm which was also propping up his own head.

"Hey guys!" She raised her head to see May approaching them, clearly unaware of the Drew greeting Dawn had received. "It's good to see you practicing Dawn!" She laughed, to which Dawn sat up and joined her.

"I'm just taking a break, I've just ate."

May nodded and sat in front of her, her legs crossed neatly and her bag on her lap now.

"Have you got your appeal yet?" Dawn asked, wondering if it were a little nosy of her to ask. May nodded; "I've chosen to use Skitty this time, you?"

Dawn nodded eagerly; "I didn't know you had a Skitty! Me and Pachirisu have some inspiration thanks to Paul." May raised her eyebrows and nodded politely. Paul wasn't taking any notice anyway; he was busy flicking through his black Pokedex.

"Are we allowed to use seals here?" Dawn asked, but May shook her head; "That's a Sinnoh thing. Have you not signed up yet?!" Dawn shook her head and watched May's eyes widen; "Dawn! There are only 16 places for Appeals! It's only a small contest! You need to go now! You might not get in!"

Dawn stood up and grabbed her bag; "I'll be right back!" She ran towards the contest hall, hearing the distancing sound of Paul's laugh as she sprinted across the park.

* * *

"Do you think she'll get a place?" May worried, and Paul continued his soft yet menacing laugh; "Doubt it, if she wasn't such a light head she'd probably be at the Sinnoh Grand Festival now anyway."

"Is that a compliment?" May frowned, but it just ignited his quiet laughter even more.

"Paul?" She asked nervously, she was such a timid little mouse as it was, and Paul was very intimidating to most people, so to her he was frightening. He grunted as a yes, which made her flinch a little.

"Is Dawn happy?" She couldn't think of any other way to put it, she worried that her friend was being blind.

"What's that supposed to mean?" His amusement shot out of the window like a Pidgey released from captivity. Again she flinched at his words, pulling her arms into her lap as she stared at them uneasily.

"I just don't want to see her hurt, that's all. It's what friends do." She bit her lip, hoping he'd buy it.

"I don't know what your friend has been telling you-"

"Drew?"

Paul frowned; "Ash."

"Oh." May fidgeted gawkily in her spot, now staring into her lap with deep interest.

"He isn't exactly the most observant of sorts." He muttered, turning his head away from her so she only just caught what he said. She bit her lip even tighter, slightly making one side bleed, only managing a weak apology before letting the awkward silence save her from anything worse.

* * *

"Is there space left in the contest tomorrow?" She begged the pretty lady behind the counter, who was frowning at her; "You're Dawn aren't you?"

Dawn nodded; "Yeah, it's my first Hoenn contest so I really want to participate!"

"You're already entered. You were the last entry."

Dawn frowned, wondering who had entered her. It couldn't have been Paul, he was with her most of the time, and May wouldn't have made her run all the way here. She scowled at the footsteps as realisation gave her the one last possible solution.

"I thought you'd need me to get you a spot. I was right, as per usual." He chuckled behind her, his breath sending the hairs on her neck on end. She spun around to find herself uncomfortably close to him; "Erm… Thanks." She muttered, keeping her eyes low and refusing to look at his beautifully hypnotic eyes.

"You're welcome." He continued to titter, following her as she walked for the exit. "So, have you got an appeal all set?"

Dawn nodded, bored by this conversation now. "You?" She replied, though she wanted to be not interested at all, she couldn't help but check the competition; which he was going to be the top end of it.

"I think for my return I'll be using Roserade. After all, they used to love her as a Roselia." He said smugly with a flick of his hair. She bit her lip to control herself, angered by his ease at generalizing Hoenn as his fans. He didn't notice and continued to gloat; "she's learnt some new moves in Jhoto, so everything shall be amazingly new, just like old times." It sounded like a contradiction, but when she read into the words carefully the smugness was there, and she could feel herself burn up.

"You know, a little modesty never hurt anyone." She raised an eyebrow, as they made their way to where Paul and May were sat silently, looking in completely opposite directions.

"It never gets you to the top though, right?" He grinned, to her disapproval. She sighed; "Cynthia is champion, and she's the most modest person I know, you should take a leaf from her book." He shrugged back at her, and sat beside May, who looked pleased he did so. Dawn, however, sat as far away from Drew as possible, but still next to Paul, who didn't take any notice in the group that was forming around him.

"So did you get in?" May asked quickly, but Dawn was also quick to reply to stop Drew from answering in front of Paul. She nodded; "Only just!"

"That's great! Have you got something to wear?" May giggled with excitement, shaking her department store bag at Dawn. Drew shook his head in disapproval; "We're not in Sinnoh, we don't have to change for appeals."

"Yeah but it was so fun!" May said nonchalantly. Dawn nodded in agreement, but started to shake it to answer her question; "No, where's the department store?"

"Can't you just wear the dress _I_ brought you?" Paul perked up, frowning at her as she shook her head even more; "It's not that kind of dressing up." He rolled his eyes and went back to pushing buttons on his Pokedex.

"The department store was back in Lilycove; where we got off the Ferry from Jhoto." May looked to Drew, who rolled his eyes in reminiscence of what was obviously a male's worst nightmare. May was giggling at what was a female's sweetest dream; shopping.

"What am I going to do then?" Dawn groaned, but May had already begun rummaging for her information guide.

"There's a small shop in the middle of town which is close to the gym, it's only small but I hear you can pick up some cool stuff."

Dawn released Piplup, who greeted its company; "I'll see you in a bit then." She pulled on Paul's sleeve, making him groan at the thought.

* * *

It was contest time, and she hadn't got her hair ready. Paul's enthusiasm for her curly hair was much more than her entering a contest, so she thought that she may as well interest him somehow. She kept the curls loose, and pulled two locks to meet at the back of her head and pinned them in place. Her new outfit was completely different to usual; it wasn't something that she would pick on her own. In fact, she didn't pick it at all, but lost the argument once she tried it on and was very impressed at Paul's skill of making her feel fabulous.

She pulled on the white blouse which had puffy translucent arms and a band at the end to tighten around her wrists. The body area was plain, and tight around her tiny waist. He also gave her high waisted navy trousers, which were very old fashioned looking, but once she tried them on, she couldn't deny how long her legs looked, and how curvaceous her body seemed. The trouser legs were baggy and hung extremely loosely, swinging freely over her silver shoes. The navy complimented her eyes and hair, and would do so for Pachirisu's blue tail stripe.

She exited the room to find the self-satisfied look on Paul's face due to his precision. She placed one hand on her hip and spun around smartly; "Well, what do you think?"

"I think I'm a damn right genius." He grinned, pulling her close and finding it extremely difficult to deny himself from her rouge lips. "Is there anything you can't do?" She asked, with a slight hint of mockery.

He smirked at her; "I'm yet to find out." His words became mumbled as he closed the distance between them, savouring the moment that was yet to bore him.

Once parted he rummaged in his coat pocket; "Here, you should wear this." He pulled his fist and waited for her hand to reach out, passing her a cold, silver broach. It was perfectly flat and round, with tiny diamante's patterned in a Pokeball shape.

"It's beautiful." She smiled, moving it in the light to watch it glisten.

"I won it off a trainer really early in my journeys. It's not an official badge, but I kept it anyway." He muttered, watching her face which was full of glee. He rested his forehead on hers, as she continued to twinkle it in the remaining light that he hadn't blocked as they waited for the contest to begin.

**So I thought I'd spare you from a boring shopping session, which you probably know how they go. Lotta Dawn squeals, that's for sure.**

**The nect chapter will be contest based alone! So get ready for me to kick it right back into the Pokemon Catagory. =]**


	17. Cheater

**Well I'm on holiday (A relaxing one this time) for 12 days so I made this chapter just before I left, and I'll have a new one ready for you when I get back I promise! But please don't ditch it because I'm gone for so long, I will be back and writing lots! ^^**

**Chapter 16**

The overhead speakers called for five minutes before introduction, and so Paul had to leave for his seat.

He sighed; "I have never watched a contest, and didn't really plan to."

She grinned; "Well you'd better get used to it, you're dating a coordinator now."

"Dating?" He laughed; "I thought we were more than _that." _She rolled her eyes and pouted; "Go. You won't get a seat else. You'll enjoy it!"

His face dropped to a scowl and kissed her quickly, wishing her luck and entering the stands. She watched after him for a while, slightly expecting him to make a run for it as he despised contests so much, but he didn't, so she made her way to the participants' room.

It was tiny compared to most, but so was the contest itself, so the room wasn't crammed at all, in fact it was more luxurious than most due to its newness. She slumped into a chair for the remaining minutes, and stared at the ceiling until Vivian came up on the screen.

"Hey Dawn, you look great!" May squealed with excitement, looking at her friend's outfit as she stood up to hug her. Dawn smiled and nodded, taking a look at May's outfit as she did. She wore tight fitted jean shorts and lace tights with black satin ballet pumps. Her top was a black simple strapless top and a cute silver necklace that dangled close to the edge of the top. Dawn envied her, her sporty physique was something she could have died for, and she was skinny enough to be a model, without a doubt. She reminded herself of how much May actually ate, and it made her feel even worse.

"You too!" Dawn said enthusiastically, pulling away from the embrace. She unconsciously scanned the room for Drew, and silently sighed when he was making his way over to them. May's face, however, lit up with even more delight than before. It was the sort of look she assumed that she gave to Paul, which could only tell her one thing. Oddly enough, Drew gave pretty much the same look at May that Paul gave to Dawn when they weren't so close, which wasn't such a good thing.

"Hey girls, you ready?" He gave his smirk a little more happiness by opening his mouth to a half smile and flashing his teeth towards Dawn. He looked up from his nose and flashed his brilliant green eyes too, then looked over to a blushing May. Dawn groaned and mumbled that the contest was about to begin to get herself out of an awkward situation, then hurried over to a seat. To her disgust Drew sat beside her, but with May on the other side, she turned herself so she could only see her.

"Welcome Mauville city! This is our debut contest here and we're so excited to introduce some of the top coordinators from not only around here, but from Sinnoh too!"

Dawn grimaced; it was great that she was considered at the top, but it only made people's expectations that much higher.

"Do we have an introduction for you!" She continued, the speakers booming her ecstatic voice; "Come back from Jhoto just for us, give it up for the one and only Drew!"

How cheesy, he loved his introduction, and the fans loved him. He waited for silence in the middle of the stage, and then threw his pokeball in the air to reveal Roserade, as promised.

"Protect!" He commanded, and the crowd fell silent in awe and anticipation. They had clearly worked on it, because the defence was expanding to fill the stadium. He nodded and called for a Solar Beam, which didn't take long due to the sunlight. Once released, the beam filled the bubble and fluttered around to look for an escape, and once a petal dance was added in, a display of fireworks erupted in front of the audience's eyes, but the protect kept them safe. Dawn couldn't believe her eyes; it was so magnificent to watch, much to her disappointment. Now the ribbon she was aiming for seemed to get further and further away.

The crowd couldn't contain their excitement any longer, and burst through their silence like a Tauros through a wall, the fireworks getting more and more reactive as the protect shrunk to a stop. They applauded as Drew and Roserade both bowed in sync, moving as one.

"Drew's pretty good, huh?" Dawn squeaked, making May laugh; "Yeah, but don't let the razzle and dazzle frighten you, that's his plan."

He came in with Roserade at his side; his smug face exactly the same as his Pokémon. May congratulated him and chattered during the next appeal, then mumbled something about her being fifth on, so should go make sure she looks okay. It was bad enough that she had to leave her with Drew for her appeal, and now she was making it worse.

His Roserade murmured something, and Drew nodded. It held out its bouquet-like hand and a rose began to extend out towards Dawn.

"Umm… Thanks." She said as she plucked the rose out of its palm. It didn't flinch, so she assumed that it wasn't its own rose.

"So, what did you think of our appeal?" He sat beside her, but with no smugness in his expression, just interest. She shrugged, knowing she should say exactly what Zoey had once said to her; "It's a pretty move alright."

Drew raised his eyebrow; "But?"

"But where was Roserade in all of it? In the middle of your appeal, Roserade disappeared." She nodded, but suddenly realised she was telling her opponent her tactics. She didn't care, his face was wiped from smugness; "You're Pokémon are the main attraction, no?"

"I guess so." He mumbled, his ego was obviously deflated. She nodded, and wandered over to her locker to put away her bag. Her plan might have worked for that short amount of time, but his smirk was there to greet her when she shut the locker door.

"You're very wise to the coordinating world already." He said simply, and she knew she was about to shout back; "What's that supposed to mean?!"

_Deep breathing… Calm down. Don't let him work you up before your appeal._

"I'm just impressed, you haven't been in this career for as long as May and I have." He corrected himself. She nodded and went to get back to her seat, but was stopped when he stood in front of her.

"You're not just a pretty face, that's all. I didn't mean it badly." He breathed over her, and she found she had backed herself against the lockers.

"I understand, now I have to go get ready for my appeal." She began flustering, attempting to break free of his staring eyes, she could feel her cheeks heat up, and people look at them but look away quickly in embarrassment.

"You have time." He said simply, bringing his face closer to hers and gently lifting it up by her chin. She kept her eyes low, refusing to look back at him, but she could feel his breath brushing over her, taking her own breath as he inhaled.

"P-Paul. I love Paul." She stuttered, trying to move her head to the side; out of the way.

"I'm not scared of him." He said simply, but she couldn't help feeling a little heated about it, instead she refused to look or speak with him, although she knew he was getting closer slowly and steadily.

"I'd treat you a lot better." She nearly laughed; he was trying to persuade her. It was a pitiful attempt, and she did nothing to stop him. "We'd look so good together."

"What about May?" She whispered, but her concern wasn't the cleverest thing to show to someone who was going to take this as an opening. "Let her look."

That was it, she couldn't do a thing about it, her lips pursed but he still found them. He pressed against her and her head leant against the lockers, banging quietly as he continued to kiss her.

She felt herself drifting her thoughts as best as possible, she couldn't have fought him. She thought of how she and Paul would get away from here after this contest, and he would be angry with her, but eventually forgive her.

_Who am I kidding!? It's Paul! I'll break his heart! _ She silently began to cry as he continued, the time was small, but it felt long enough. _I love him so much, please let me get through this. _She could feel her heart pounding as she thought about him, and didn't realise that she was kissing back until he broke away from her, his eyes full of joy and benevolence.

She wanted to slap him, but tears were rolling down her face and she couldn't let her mascara run before her appeal. She ran for the changing room, bumping into May.

"What's wrong Dawn!?" She clutched onto her friends shoulders, shaking her slightly. Dawn shrugged her off and ran for the room, slamming it shut before her friend could enter, and slumped at the door. Listening to May's cries as she sobbed into her knees.


	18. Appealing to his better side

**I'm back! And I wrote so many chapters for you while I was away that you'll be getting them quite quickly, so you'd better keep up! ^^**

**Chapter 17**

"Dawn? Dawn! Let me in!"

She ignored her, comfort from the girl who's heart she probably just shattered was the last thing she needed.

"Dawn, let me in or I swear I'll break the down this door."

A new voice, another she didn't want to hear, but she couldn't ignore the warning, he was not one to make empty threats.

She shuffled forward to let him rattle the door handle again, to realise he could get in.

"What are you doing?" She sniffed and wiped her face gently.

"I was going to ask you that." He mumbled, hurrying over to the table to fetch a tissue, and then returned to mop the mascara that had ran a little down her cheeks before it stained. They were silent while he did so, she stared up at his care-free face and fought back the tears because that would just make him frustrated.

"What did he say to you then?" He spat, staring at her as if interrogating her. She blinked furiously as he saw straight through her, leaning back a little from him as she shied away nervously from his frown.

He pushed her chin up with his finger, which was extremely comforting to her surprise. She shrugged helplessly and shook her head; how could she hurt him when he was being so kind and supportive? What sort of repayment was that? She felt so sick with guilt she worried that she was going to crumple in front of him if it weren't for the support under her face.

He mumbled something as he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her as he closed the gap between them. She tightened her eyes shut to keep the tears back and rested her head on his collar bone, his hair mingling with her own.

"Whatever he has said, ignore it. Even if you know it's true or if he's made you doubt yourself, you need to let it go. Being angry or upset about it will distract you when you're against him. He ended with a bitterness she hadn't heard since Sinnoh, perhaps before they started getting close to each other.

She shivered at the thought of hating him so much, that passion had been replaced with a much sweeter, satisfactory one.

"I can bet that's his aim too." He muttered, breaking her out of her thoughts.

She opened her eyes and sighed; "Sorry." His grip tightened around her as he snorted; "Don't be silly."

She bit her lip anxiously, wanting to apologise continuously, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him what she was sorry for.

They waited a short while before she found the strength to look at him again, and she found gazing into his eyes far too easy.

"You get up there and you'd better impress me, I don't see how you can enjoy all this palaver…" He mock threatened her, before pulling her close to boost her confidence with an all too pleasing embrace. He pulled away a little too soon for her liking, but she realised he could hear her name being called.

"Go, you won't make it up in time to watch my appeal else." She drummed her fingers rhythmically at his chest once, and pushed him out the door. He clung onto her wrist and tripped her out too, quickly kissing her once more and smiling serenely at her; "Good luck." He whispered.

She nodded and pushed him towards the stairs; "Go!"

"Are you okay now Dawn?" May blinked nervously as she scanned Dawn's face. She nodded back quickly; "Yeah, sorry May." She hurried past her to the corridor without explanation.

The girl before her was just finishing her appeal with a Snorunt.

"Ice Shard, Snorunt!" She squealed with excitement, it was quite clearly her first contest. She was very young and careless to use an ice shard on an impressive intricate web formed by an ice beam. It shattered completely to the young coordinator's disappointment. She walked past Dawn with her head hung in shame; the sympathy was overwhelming for Dawn.

"That's some ice beam!" Dawn cheered, balling her fists enthusiastically for her. The girl stared in disbelief as she let the words sink in; "You're Dawn!"

Dawn frowned, but nodded. The girl perked up immediately, jumping with delight; "I'm so glad to meet you! You're my inspiration! Your win at the Wallace Cup was what made me decide to be a coordinator!"

"Wow, I'm flattered." Dawn gasped, completely dumbfounded and speechless.

"Can I get a picture with you please!?" The girl started jumping even higher.

Dawn sweat dropped; "Sure, after my appeal okay?"

The girl squealed in almost ultrasonic pitch; "Of course! They've nearly cleared all the ice now! I'll wait here to see how I can improve by watching you! Good luck Dawn! You're amazing!"

Dawn blushed and nodded in thanks politely.

"_Up next is another Hoenn debut, but this time she's one of Sinnoh's top coordinators!"_

The audience rumbled with theories, no one sure of the last minute entry.

_I'm not top; I didn't even enter the grand festival! _She mentally grimaced as her little fan clapped with delight.

"_She may have started a fresh here, but back in her home region she's frequently a hot topic! Give it up for Wallace Cup winner; Dawn!"_

_So that's my label now. _She giggled, _I didn't realise the Wallace cup gave me this much attention! Maybe Drew really is threatened. I did beat May…_

A wave of guilt soared through her at the thought of them both, but she shook her head in determination, and then ran out to wave at the excited crowd.

The cheers turned to mumbles, a hum of anticipation as she released her Pokeball.

With a quick twirl and a flick of her wrist, she shouted her signature call; "Pachirisu! Spotlight!"

The crowd's hum turned to a growl of cheers as her electric squirrel Pokémon landed on its tail and flailed its legs cutely. They quickly fell silent when it lowered itself onto its feet; ready to perform.

"Just like we practiced! Sweet kiss!" Dawn fell into her performance just as naturally and comfortably as her Pokémon, but she scanned the crowd for Paul anyway. There was no sign of him, which was probably best, he would make her nervous.

Once Pachirisu had charged, it released an enlarged pink heart and then looked to Dawn for approval. She nodded back and ordered a discharged, which it obeyed happily; electrocuting and freezing the sweet kiss in its spot. Her Pokémon had already begun running towards it.

"That's it! Jump inside and use spark!"

It took a while, but the sight was perfect; just as she imagined it to be. The heart glistened beautifully with electric sparks crackling everywhere.

"Okay! Now break out with super fang!" She called a little louder so her blocked in Pokémon could hear. The heart shattered into red dust, and the electricity continued to crackle as Pachirisu flipped and landed on its tail to pose for the finish.

"_What a beautiful ending!"  
"A remarkable effort!"  
"What a debut! It's very clever how she froze the sweet kiss so it didn't confuse Pachirisu!"_

Dawn smiled, pleased with the turnout. She allowed herself another quick scan, to no avail. She sighed briefly, then grinned and waved with her free arm as she walked off towards the exit with a very proud Pokémon in her arm.


	19. I Do

**So I said I'd got them written and thought you'd like me to be spilling these chapters!**

**Chapter 18**

"It takes a while for the results." Dawn relaxed into Paul's arms as they sat on the grass just outside the contest hall and gym.

"So, what did you think?" She urged, twisting around to see his expression.

"I'm no expert, this is the first contest I've ever seen and wanted to pay attention to. Why don't you ask your friend May?"

Dawn sighed and turned back around; "May's too kind, I value your opinion."

He snorted and raised an eyebrow, clearly taking offence. "You know what I mean." She giggled light-heartedly, attempting to soften him a little.

He hesitated, then inhaled; "I liked the end of the appeal." He said simply, making her sigh; "And the rest?" She pushed, if he wasn't out to compliment it all, there was something wrong with it.

"It was a little…" He paused to find the right word without offending her; "Long." It was his best attempt to be gentle, he could have said worse. "Compared to the others I mean." He added quickly.

Dawn didn't seem to mind this, to his relief. Instead she nodded in agreement; "They're all Hoenn coordinators, you see." _Except Drew,_ She mentally corrected herself, _but it's still pretty similar in Larousse. _"Sinnoh is a lot more… Sparkly and technical, Hoenn contests like to get to the point."

"Shouldn't you try to fit in with the Hoenn standards?" Paul asked, only to receive an accusing glare. "Why would I do that when I'm from Sinnoh?"

He let go of her to hold his hands up in surrender; "Not an expert remember?" He smirked at her, he enjoyed her feistiness; it was extremely hot in his eyes, whether she knew it and played it to her advantage or not.

"Your friend is good." He muttered, quick to change the topic and distract himself. It was a clear warning for her, and he sounded a little concerned, but she nodded with ease; "May's strengths are in her appeals, she's very creative. She's very surprising too, she has something new to share in her battles every time. Drew has a problem with that, I hear, he doesn't respond to the unexpected the way me and May can."

As much as he hated the male coordinator, he could see where that problem came from. "It must be a girl thing," he explained; "I like to know I'm in complete control over a battle, preparation is how I win."

She nodded thoughtfully, letting it sink in to keep in handy against Drew if the time came. Then she stopped and shook her head; "It can't be a girl thing, Ash can bring unexpected tactics into battle too, I often wonder whether it's where May and I learnt it."

"Yeah and look who wins the most battles." He replied smugly, squeezing his 'prize' tightly to him. She elbowed his rib impatiently; "Don't be mean, he did a lot for me."

He rolled his eyes.

"I mean it; you're very ignorant if it doesn't concern you." She mumbled, leaning away from him and using her accusing glance to practiced perfection.

He took a while to reply; "It caught your attention though, right?" The sudden outburst of smug optimism just exploded some more, and it caught her off guard.

She raised an eyebrow; "Sure.

"Then I shall continue to be ignorant." He smiled triumphantly, leaning back on his hands. She sighed in defeat, before slamming her back into his chest, making him huff slightly as she forced him to exhale. This petty revenge made her smile as he snaked his hand around her waist, his fingertips pressing and walking along her stomach.

It was a while before she drifted slightly out of her dreamy thoughts to realise she had leant her head back onto his shoulder, and he was faced down with the front of his chin on her shoulder. She realised that under his hair, his eyes were closed as he breathed evenly. Her heart fluttered at his now innocent face, what could drive her to love him so fast? Was it fast, or did she not notice until he pointed it out?

"Paul?" She blurted suddenly, he jumped and slowly lifted his head as he grunted his acknowledgement. "Did you ever wonder… Whether Mesprit was the reason we love each other?"

He began to laugh gently, causing her to blush intensely, slightly embarrassed and furious; She was being serious.

"Dawn, I've never thought about reasons to love you. I don't think I have a reason. I just… Do."

"Oh." Her face dropped, though he couldn't see her expression, it was enough to make him panic. He began to twist her to look at him in frantic desperation; "No, I didn't mean it like _that_."

He sighed at her frown, the disappointment in her eyes; the body language she was emitting was preparation, as if she was being discarded.

"You know how hard it is for me to explain what I feel. Try to understand?" He begged, shaking her gently in an attempt to gain eye contact. He didn't wait for an answer, he wanted to fix what he had said; "Dawn, there is no reasoning in loving you, I do because I don't have a choice. Wait…"

He sighed as he continued to struggle, his frown was furrowing deeper as he began to bite his bottom lip. Her eye line lowered and got further away from him to hide her feeling of confusion and rejection; which she had already felt one too many times.

"Dawn," He growled as he fought his words out; "Say I had a reason to love you, if that reason went away, my love would too." He hated using the word love, it wasn't right, it was cheesy, but it's all he had to describe it. "Say if I loved you for your beautiful, royal blue hair. If you decided to colour it, could I stop loving you? No. There is no reason to loving you. Whether your hair is green, pink, blue or… Grey."

He smiled at his suggestion, and once she realised what he meant she grinned; "Grey!? Who says I'm going to get old?" She laughed, and he chuckled too.

They settled eventually back to their silent thoughtful selves, fitting together in a puzzle-like hug. She sighed gently before inhaling to speak; "I never thought about us in that way before, but now I am and I understand. It's unconditional. There's no 'if's or 'but's. Just… 'Do's."

"What are you implying by that?" He said quickly, stiffening slightly.

She frowned; "Nothing," she said innocently; "Why, what do you think I'm implying?" She raised her eyebrows curiously, trying to read his expression.

Silence.

He sucked in slowly after a long thinking moment; "Nothing. I just got a little insight into your sub-conscience though." He grimed at her look of horror.

"What did _I do!?" _She squealed, sitting bolt upright as she flailed her arms in the air. He just laughed harder; "You did it again!"

She pouted; "I don't know what _I'm doing!"_ She grumbled, but his laughter burst into a quick howl and then relaxed into chuckles.

She growled back in irritation as she stood up; "I better get back, the results will be in soon."

He rolled his eyes as she strutted away from him, and followed her eagerly.

"Sorry, it just tickled me." He jogged to her side, pulling his bag over his shoulder. She ignored him blatantly, but he just smirked with an idea he knew would work. "Do you think you'll get through?" He slowed his pace to let her walk ahead as she looked up to the hall.

"I hope so." She almost yelled with determination. He smirked and hugged her from behind to whisper in her ear; "_I do _too."

**I hope you click onto the hint better than Paul's last problem. **

**And the chapters are going to get gooooood from here. Promise. XD**


	20. Butterfly Battles

**I wrote this out consecutively to the last chapter but held it back because I'm evil. =P**

**Trust me, the OOC Paul will be disappearing shortly. **

**Chapter 19**

She ignored the grumbles of the little rookie coordinator as she stared blankly at the board, awaiting the preliminary results.

"I'm not expecting to get through," the little girl chatted, her name, Dawn had learnt whilst writing her an autograph; was Evia; "My appeal wasn't perfect, but I don't mind, you've shown me how to improve." She continued to babble, not realising she had no audience.

"_The judges have deliberated and chosen the four acts to go through to the battles!" _The screen flicked to the score board and the tension in the coordinators' room tightened.

May's picture was first to appear, and she squealed with delight with being the best appeal. She and Drew exchanged compliments as she told him how she wished he could get through too.

Of course, it wasn't a wish, it was a prediction. His picture flashed up next to May's, and it shocked Dawn to see the innocence his ID looked compared to his usual smug self, which he was elegantly smirking at that moment. She shivered in heated rage.

The next picture left Dawn disappointed, it was not her own. She was beginning to doubt herself, should she stuck to the Hoenn style like Paul had suggested? She held her breath as the announcer asked questions herself in excitement. Dawn hated how they dragged the last one to keep everybody on edge, it was doing its job beautifully, she felt as if she were about to collapse. The anxiousness made her feel a little like headed.

She looked down at the wrong moment to sit down, for she was pulled up by her new friend; "Yay! You did it! I knew you would! I'm so happy!" She clasped Dawn's hands and jumped around. The blunette let her for a little while, letting the news sink in. Her heart began to pound with excitement, like it usually did, but she kept her face straight and calm as she looked to Evia; "I'm sorry you didn't get through though."

"Who cares!? I'm watching you live and for free, this is the best debut I could ask for!" She nudged Dawn and her excitement was too enthusiastic to have been faked.

Dawn felt a sudden rush of envy for this little girl, she was happy even though she lost, felt no shame at all. Dawn had put herself through hell after a few losses, a downwards spiral of pessimism. She expected everyone went through it, she wanted to be petty and say it was fair that Evia wasn't troubled, but she couldn't spoil this innocent optimism.

She sighed and smiled weakly; "As long as you're okay?"

"Stop worrying will you!?" Evia giggled; "I can't expect to be the best from the beginning, it's the experience that makes you a champion, right?"

Dawn grimaced, it would be three days from now that the grand festival in Sinnoh would begin, she could have answered that question if she were still there gaining the experience.

She didn't have to answer though; May interrupted them politely; "Well done Dawn." She looked a little worried, but smiled anyway.

"Meet you at the finish line?" Dawn grinned, but only to receive a contorted expression as May's smile wiped clean off her face.

"If I can get past Drew." She mumbled, glancing at him wistfully and unintentionally stabbing Dawn with guilt.

"_Please_ beat him, or else I'll have to and it won't be pretty." Dawn begged playfully, making her little fan giggle.

"I'm not sure which wrath is worse, yours or Drew's..." May muttered, smirking too as she rolled her eyes.

Dawn frowned; "Well you're facing Drew's first, so fire up the May wrath, will you?"

May grinned and winked; "Don't you worry, Drew's in for a shock!" She glanced over in the general direction of the green haired boy, Dawn assumed, and nodded.

"Wish me luck!" May giggled.

"Good luck." It came from nowhere; his masculine yet slightly high pitched, beautiful voice came from between Dawn and Evia, making them both jump.

His hand purposely brushed Dawn's waist and arm, but he shot an apologetic look to cover it as held out a rose for one of them,

Evia stopped breathing as she gasped at Drew with eyes as wide as a Jigglypuff. Dawn laughed, if there were enough light in the room, her eyes would sparkle, she was totally star-struck.

He clearly noticed too, as he turned his back on Dawn and gestured the rose towards the young girl; "For you, to wish you luck next time." He said smoothly to get the reaction he craved. She looked ghostly white, as if she were about to faint.

Dawn rolled her eyes as May giggled a little too loud; Dawn could see she hated Drew showing attention to anyone else, but he didn't belong to her so she couldn't say a word. Metaphorically, May twisted the knife of guilt and tipped it towards Dawn's heart. A lump formed in her throat as she fought to keep her cool, it wasn't the time or place for a mental break down.

"Th-thank you." Evia gasped, almost brimming with tears. Drew smirked in approval of his newest reaction and shot a quick glance at Dawn. She looked like she was eating herself inside-out. He misunderstood Dawn's guilt for envy and his smile widened. In his eyes, his plan to make her jealous was a complete success.

"Can I get a picture with you three please!?" Evia pulled her ecstatic, optimistic self back together.

"Er… We have to go battle now Drew." May said quickly, turning and strutting to the corridor. Dawn's jaw dropped, she had never seen her with so much attitude, and from the look on Drew's face, he hadn't either.

"Good luck to both of you!" Evia squealed, reaching a new level of pitch Dawn didn't think was possible.

"Good luck, May!" Dawn called, not sure if she reached her, but she knew that Drew had heard by the hesitation in his smooth walk.

"_And now, to start of the semi finals we give you another variation of a legendary pairing, these two give record breaking battles! Neither one ever takes a clear advantage over the other, so we'll expect their most vicious battle yet! Give it up for May and Drew!" _

The crowd yelled louder than before, mainly girls screaming with delight. The two walked out together in sync, waving their outside arm. When they reached the middle they turned to each other and shook hands with determined looks, but Dawn noticed something wrong with May, she looked distracted; which she had never seen happen. Ash and Brock had told her stories about May, which she had once had trouble concentrating with a sly rival with purple hair; she remembered the bitterness Ash spat at the colour but took no notice at the time. Now it all made sense.

She shook her head to keep concentrating on May; she wasn't her comfortable, modest self. She looked completely vacant and unfocused.

_Come on May… _Dawn growled to herself, wanting to shake her friend violently and ask questions later.

"Beautifly! Take the stage!"

Dawn sighed with relief; May's Beautifly was Dawn's equivalent to Buneary; very trusted and could handle itself. It would attack without command if need be.

Drew released a Butterfree, obviously his equivalent. So the battle began.

"Solar Beam!" Drew commanded, throwing his arms around as he claimed the audience's attention first.

May clicked into battle mode; Dawn could see the life light up in her sparkling topaz eyes; "Spin and use Arial Ace!"

Dawn gasped; "That's my move!" Of course, it worked perfectly and Drew didn't know what to do so the super effective move landed. She felt at ease that it did, but still annoyed that May had stolen her move. Now she couldn't use it.

"Sleep powder!" Drew tried a new move, she knew if he had any combinations he would hold them back until he needed them. May on the other hand had her mind full of counters, as now her Beautifly was spinning rapidly as it ascended, firing a string shot which covered the bug type in a spiral, caching all of the powder. Dawn gasped again, that wasn't new either, it reminded her too much of Ash's counter to Fantina's Drifblim.

It was then that Dawn clicked onto May's secret; her flaw was that Dawn knew every trick May had, because she only tweaked the ones she'd seen or heard of. A clever strategy to anyone else, but if she got to Dawn, May didn't stand a chance.

"Grab the string!" Drew's smug smirk had faltered, but it returned to its natural place quickly when Beautifly became tangled in its own web.

Butterfree glanced at Drew for directions, to which he pointed down. By swinging its own weight, it threw the string shot pendulum to the floor and a small cry of pain echoed out of it.

"_That's what we like to see! Counter after counter, neither one wants to lose to an old rivalry!"_

May had become lost in thought again; her eyes had turned blank as she stared across to Drew. He took this as his chance to order a tackle.

Beautifly struggled to break free from its own hand-made prison, and Butterfree was happy to help by slamming into its foe, hurting May's points a lot; now they were even.

The sun beat down on both the butterfly's wings and glistened in the rays, the dazzle was enough to distract May from her thoughts and bring her back to life. "Morning sun!" She yelled, twirling gracefully underneath the beams of light.

Drew planned on using what little sun there was too; "Solar Beam!" Drew shouted, getting slightly red with frustration.

Beautifly stopped and nodded simultaneously with its trainer; "Try this combination; Silver wind and then psychic!"

Drew watched patiently as he observed the beautiful attacks unfold; the two streams of ribbon-like wind bent around Beautifly under the influence of mind power. They spun around the bug type magnificently, like atoms orbiting a core. The solar beam couldn't find a way through, and merely brushed the defence. Drew's points suffered significantly. His only hope was to make Beautifly faint, his haughty face knew it, and looked quite determined.

May grinned as the crowd hummed in awe. Dawn nodded, this was Fantina's hidden power technique, May must have been listening intently to Ash's battle stories. Drew wouldn't have a clue in how to respond to it.

A smirk crept across Dawn's face when she noticed Drew was dangerously close to getting knocked out. However, to her disappointment, she knew she couldn't see an easy end, Drew wouldn't give up without a fight.

_He must have better than this_, she thought, _he wouldn't have such a reputation without mind blowing combinations…_

He flashed his eye line to the sky; a cloud began to slide across, no longer hogging the sun's rays.

"Another Solar Beam." He said simply.

Dawn snorted, the intensified sun rays may make a solar beam faster, but not stronger; the power came from the Pokémon.

The Kanto butterfly obliged its master's orders nonetheless, firing at amazing speed. May didn't budge, her defence could hold it.

It did, but that's what Drew was planning on; "Tackle it to the floor!" He yelled quickly to his Pokémon, his patient waiting the first time gave him the time to observe this new defence. He noticed the solar beam may not have touched Beautifly, but it was powerful enough to break the defence for a brief moment, then it closed up.

Dawn inhaled and held her breath, he proved his title as a top coordinator, he was far better that she had hoped. His technique was perfect for making May crumple; he took whatever she tried and twisted it to his advantage.

In this case, Beautifly confirmed Dawn's fears with a cry of pain. It was tackled through its own shield, which Butterfree got through unharmed because of it, and hit the floor with such force it fainted without much of a fight.

They didn't bother with the points, the judges just buzzed May straight out. Drew had won, and his smug face confirmed it.

**Oh we all knew the outcome, Drew sooooo has to face Dawn. **

**I hope you didn't struggle with my May combinations, they're a little hard to write up when you have visions in your head. If you didn't notice yet, if pokemon were real, I'd have to be a coordinator.**

**And tackle Paul. =]**


	21. Forbidden Heat

**Yay! I hit 100 reviews! Thank you all of you for supporting me so much! I'm glad this is such a hit! And I got it just in time for my favourite chapter I have ever written. =]**

**Guess what, I did it again. The last three chapters and this one were all typed up on the same day. Aren't you frustrated with this tension? Trust me, it gets worse. XD**

**A **_**warning**_** about the tension; it gets very… Hot in this chapter. For those of you a little young and still immature, you might want to skip the middle section and move straight to the battle at the bottom. (I know you probably won't because I wouldn't, but I have to warn you. ;D)**

**Chapter 20**

Dawn's fury was enough to completely wipe the teenage boy and his Sableye out of the competition with an ease only Piplup could carry off.

May was quick to hurry out of the stadium, avoiding Drew and making it fairly obvious. Dawn caught her arm as she tried not to make eye contact.

"Sorry Dawn." She mumbled, and then shrugged in an attempt to break free of Dawn's tight grasp.

"What happened?" Dawn asked, but paused, May looked as disturbed as Dawn had before her own appeal; "What did he say to you?"

"Nothing," May blurted a little too quickly.

Dawn narrowed her eyes and stared at her friend's heated face. She began to pull the brunette out of the door, to find Paul was waiting for her.

She smiled weakly before being tugged backwards by a struggling May. The look on Paul's face was almost frightening, she watched in disbelief when he hauled May over his shoulder and looked to Dawn; "Where to?"

May was clearly not impressed when she was set down in a quiet area. She frowned and grumbled at them but sighed in defeat and sat down. She looked a little queasy actually.

"Are you okay?" Dawn knelt in front of her; "What did he say? Or Do?"

May shook her head; "Nothing out of the usual, I just don't feel very well."

Dawn raised an eyebrow, and then looked up at Paul who looked equally as sceptical. "Okay, Paul will take you to the Pokémon center."

"I'm fine, I don't need to be carried…"

Dawn laughed; "He'll walk with you, I don't want you fainting on your own."

"But your battle…" May protested, only to be stopped by Dawn's waving hand; "He's seen me battle hundreds of times." She lied, but she knew Paul was good at making anyone talk too much. He just had to be silent and it was enough to make Dawn explode.

May sighed once more and stood up, taking Paul's arm that he offered as she looked as if she were about to collapse.

Dawn eyed her carefully, though she had no reason to, she felt a burning desire to rip May off Paul's arm. Her jealousy raged through her like a fire blast expanding through her limbs.

Then the guilt doused the flame in a wash of pain that made her shiver. May was innocently supporting herself; there was nothing bad about it. She, herself was the one who had made the most damage here. Dawn; the back stabber, breaking three hearts in one moment. The guilt was enough to delude herself into believing she'd broken Drew's heart too, though he continued to smirk bravely. That innocent ID was enough to make her see he could easily break down too, and she was tipping him over the edge by leading him on.

She wanted to shrink, not exist, hide or go back in time to tell herself to become a trainer; either way she wouldn't know Drew. Then no hearts would be broken.

"Dawn?"

She looked up at her call, May was staring at her carefully, though her face was grey with sickness; "Good luck." She pressed a smile on her ill expression, and Dawn returned one as best she could. She then looked to Paul, who was smiling too, his lips pressed together as he fought himself to not say anything wrong. His eyes told her everything, the kind of look that screamed in the only way she could describe as:

'Kick-his-ass-Dawn.'

* * *

There, in the corridor he stood perfectly, proud and waiting for his time to shine. She sieved through her mixture of emotions on this topic to find an interesting one; her competitive side that told her this isn't her fault. It's Drew's, and he wasn't going to distract her from her prize.

"You look nervous." Drew stated as he glanced at her subtly, then turned to look at the stage being cleared for the final time in this contest.

Dawn frowned; "So do you." Dawn kept her face completely straight and unreadable.

"Do I?" He looked at her curiously with his jaw slightly ajar.

She nodded mechanically; "Yeah, I think you're threatened." She mused.

"How so?" He raised an eyebrow, the smirk showing complete amusement at the moment, but the glisten in his eyes confirmed her theory; he doubted himself.

"May you're used to, you know what makes her trip up, but she can still get past you. You saw me beat her and now you're quaking in your smart-ass trainers." She looked down to point out he was fidgeting; which he stopped quickly.

"You're right." He said simply, opening the trap for her. She frowned, allowing him to explain. "I'm threatened because you distract me. The way you move in your battle, it's beautiful. You are beautiful; you have such a rage, such passion. I love it; it's very _hot_ if I do say so." He flicked his hair and looked her up and down, making her confident ego quiver slightly as she held it together as firmly as possible.

She rolled her eyes; "uh-huh," she smirked, "is that what you told May?"

He frowned and pouted at her reaction; "No, I've already said it's you, you're absolutely stunning."

"What _did _you say to her?" She hissed through gritted teeth, ignoring his compliments.

He shrugged; "I told her I love you."

That stopped her flow, she took a step back and her eyes widened in shock; "What!?" He watched her blush, though she was really flushing with such rage that she nearly saw red.

"You heard me." He smiled serenely, that innocent look played across his face, showing off his beautiful features. He was being completely serious, it was only natural for any girl to go a little weak at the knees when someone was so mad about her, though she stiffened when he advanced on her.

"I did." She choked; "What I was meant to ask was why the _hell_ would you do that?" She began gaining higher pitches; her body expression was equally as hysterical.

"Because she asked." He said carelessly, now dangerously close to Dawn. She found herself backing into the wall and a horrible sense of déjà vu she didn't want to ever feel again crept back into her lungs, as she gasped for air in the heat of the moment. Her heart was fluttering at his voice, his hot breath was bringing out Goosebumps and her body was aching to melt into his smouldering, masculine frame. She found herself forced into natural attraction; he was so stunningly gorgeous it was instinct to want the 'alpha male' of _her_ career. Paul was an alpha male…

"P-Paul." She mumbled again, mainly to herself as a reminder as she fought the stupid thoughts of Drew and her together, green hair would never match blue as well as purple.

Drew smirked at her replayed reaction; "I can take him on."

"You don't understand." She pressed her hands onto his perfectly muscular chest, she fought the pleasure they were both feeling from the contact, though he loved it. "I love Paul; you are nothing more than a rival to me."

_A gorgeous, sexy rival... _Her body screamed at her, the pressure between mind vs. body was an unimaginable pain.

_You love Paul. You love Paul! What are you doing you stupid girl!? _Her sane conscience screamed at her, but her instincts were booting her closer to the boy of her childhood dreams in a way she'd never imagined.

Drew; this handsome boy stood in front of her was perfect for her, they matched in perfect harmony, destined to be together, how else could she describe the fight her body was putting up? He was begging for her attention, he'd be at her feet if she asked. Her body tingled at the thought of what he could do…

_Shut up! Paul is made for you! You fulfil him! He needs you!_

She didn't know how she was fighting it, she was finding the strength from somewhere in her sane thoughts. He stared at her blankly for a minute, his chest still pressed against her hands; she could feel him beginning to sweat a little, which made it that much harder to fight her temptations.

"You don't know what you're missing." He whispered; it sounded like that was all his voice could manage at that moment. It made her tingle, mad, horrific visions rushed through her thoughts and he was edging closer to them second by second.

She found herself whispering too, why was she making it more intense!? "I'm pretty sure I do."

"Then why are you smiling?" He smirked, but it was a lot more pleased than smug. She scowled; "I wasn't, I was smirking."

"You're attracted to me, admit it." He practically ordered, it was hard to resist. So hard, the hot breath between them was making it hard for her to keep her cool, his arms pressed either side of her made him look dominant, and it wasn't making things any easier.

She couldn't help herself; "Yeah, I am."

"We'd look great together." His body was pressing onto hers, the heat was extreme, his lips were at her cheek, she only needed to look to the side and her body would have its way...

"Maybe," she shrugged; "but my loyalty is stronger than lust."

"Your loyalty can't be very strong then, you proved that when you kissed back."

"I got lost in thought of Paul, I forgot it was you." She spat, and he was clearly offended when he lifted his weight off her a little.

He frowned; "he's such a cold person, I haven't seen him touch you once."

Dawn knew she was getting more heated in defence than passion now, which was working to her advantage; "That's because you're ignorant if it doesn't concern you." She gasped inwardly at her repeated words, _no, Paul is much better than him, _she reminded herself.

"Oh please, you're in denial." He rolled his eyes, only to receive a retorting snort; "Denial." Her sarcasm she'd learnt from Paul was perfect for this moment, but he nodded anyway.

"Pot and Kettle…" She scowled as he brushed his hands down her body and walked away, leaving her with a few minutes to recover from her flustered thoughts.

* * *

"_And now we've reached the finals after some fierce competition! We've never seen this pairing in the history or Coordination, and so I am honoured to announce and spark a rivalry between Drew of Larousse and Dawn of Sinnoh!"_

The doors opened, and they were still spitting at each other, but not making contact, just facing the audience. They wandered to the middle of the stage separately, and shook each other's hand hastily. She shot a glare once she reached her end of the stage, but he was content in looking at the floor.

"Flygon! Let's go!" He called, to Dawn's delight; this put her in an immediate advantage.

"Mamoswine! Spotlight!" She grinned, but hesitated when Drew didn't even bat an eyelid.

"_And let's get busy!"_

Mamoswine rose onto its hind legs and roared with exceptional fierceness, Flygon looked to its trainer in slight intimidation.

"Ladies first." Drew smiled, waving his arms in a gentlemanly gesture. Girls squealed at him, but Dawn knew he was mocking her. "Ice shard!" She yelled, throwing a pointed finger at the Dragon Pokémon.

"Flamethrower," Drew grinned, chuckling when Dawn faltered when she knew he had a back up for ice types.

The fire shot straight through the shard, and headed for the huge ice type. Dawn smiled, without needing a command, her Pokémon stuck its giant ice tusk in the way to split the flames in half; Paul had prepared them for fire types. Drew's points dropped to the same as Dawn's.

"Sand storm." He called quietly, causing a mutter in the crowds.

"_What's Drew up to? Sandstorm won't affect either Pokémon in battle!"_

Dawn knew straight away; he wasn't testing the Pokémon. He was gambling his own trust against hers. A very big gamble in her eyes; nobody could see either side's attacks, she had to get Flygon out to show it had taken damage.

"Dig and then use ancient power!"

The points on Drew's side dropped as Flygon became bombarded with glowing rocks and pushed outside the sandstorm. It looked to Drew uneasily, but he swung his arm towards the beige hurricane; "Get in there and find it!" He shouted over the hum of scratching sand.

There was a moment of silenced that was gradually overwhelming Dawn, the tension was making her tremble in anticipation. She couldn't help her anxious nature; "Double edge!" She burst, knowing the huge risk she'd just taken.

Luck was thankfully on her side, Flygon had just found Mamoswine, but couldn't react as it was already crashing into the dragon without it properly registering.

Flygon flew high out of the storm, flapping the sand to the floor in disagreement with its trainer; Drew needed to be looking out for him as a team, or else they wouldn't win.

"_Wow, would you look at that! The sand is whipping around the two Pokémon as it settles, these two Pokémon certainly seem at home in these conditions, what a fabulous technique from Drew!" _

Of course he would make the most out of his error, her points dropped a little.

"Flamethrower!" Drew shouted, clearly not holding back anything anymore. His composure had melted in the heat of the battle.

_Why would he openly retry this attack? _She scanned her brain looking for an answer, watching as Mamoswine used its tusk effectively once more.

'_I like to know I'm in complete control over a battle, preparation is how I win.' _Paul's words and the knowledge of Drew's capability to adapt under pressure was enough to make her react. "Ice shard!" She gasped to her Pokémon, but Drew already had Flygon speeding around it and smashing into her Pokémon with a steel wing.

She took the chance to look at the score board, she was only just in the lead; it wasn't safe to be on the defence.

"Pin it down while it was there." Dawn yelled; now she was stealing May's tactic, it was her turn to take Ash's experiences.

Mamoswine twirled itself to hook a tusk around Flygon just as a Raichu once had against Pikachu.

"Ice Shard again!" She practically squealed now it was all clicking into place.

Drew wasn't going to give up; "Steel wing!" He cried a little desperately, he was squirming at her surprise, just as Paul described.

The ice split against the shield as he planned, and covered the stadium with a thin mist.

"_The area has completely changed, this time only one of the Pokémon really fits in! How will Drew cope with such a climate?"_

_He won't. _Dawn grinned; "Ancient power!" She used it as a rock tomb, perhaps this trap could get an ice shard to land. There was only one way to find out; "One more ice shard! Give it everything Mamoswine!" She punched the air to push her Pokémon, and she couldn't be more proud, the ice shard was huge and clattered straight through to a helpless Flygon. The rocks fell out of the way, and an exhausted Flygon jumped into the skies, fluttering feebly.

"_Half a minute on the clock!" _

Dawn held her breath to withhold a gasp, so long left? Mamoswine couldn't keep this up much longer.

"Spin with steel wing and flamethrower!" Drew pushed his Pokémon, and it obeyed with the same thirst for winning as its trainer.

Dawn growled, her move had been stolen again, but she knew how to stop it; give them something to run into.

"Ice shard!"

He fell into her trap; Flygon was too busy dodging that it charged uncontrollably into a Take Down attack,

They took a standoff, glaring at each other with determined scowls, their bodies were marked with intense battle marks, and their legs were wobbling uncontrollably. They panted as they glared into each other eyes, willing for the other one to fall, but Dawn knew Mamoswine's sturdy legs could keep it up, and they did, and it roared triumphantly in perfect harmony with Dawn's squealing.

**Yay, I hope you're satisfied with that battle. I had two endings but I thought Dawn needed a little break. Especially after **_**THAT**_**. Lmao, that's the first time I've written something so mature, so I hope I didn't go overboard, but I thought it was quite realistic. Not that I've been in the situation of cheating on someone, but you know…**

**I still have three and half chapters written down from my holiday, and I will type them up in the morning. (This is probably 3 days ago now considering how slow I'm uploading them for you. *Evil Grins*) Trust me, Dawn's luck in escaping is about to run out, and I don't mean just Drew. *Evil grin widens***

**Can I get some critics on the battle please!? I don't like how I structure my battles, so some improvement would be a great help!**

**Oh yeah, and sorry about the Belle-shipping MAJOR hints, of course, it couldn't be completely one sided, right? Drew is meant to be gorgeous! So it's only natural it got a little steamy between them. And of course a girl can't ignore that; in a relationship with Paul or not. =]**

**Wow, essay. o.O Shut up Besanii.**


	22. Tears drying, hearts dying

**Hahaa, it's not what you think; it's not what you think! :**

**Chapter 21**

"Are you okay?" He sighed; it was the only think he could think to say to a hormonal, drowsy girl who wasn't Dawn.

May murmured a sound to indicate she was fine, but her body language was proving she was lying. Her knees buckled from under her weight and she slammed her head onto his shoulder.

Paul groaned, he knew what this would look like, but Dawn had trusted him to look after her one last friend and he wasn't going to screw up this one as he had with her others. It was bad enough to hear her cry for them at night when she thought he was asleep.

"Paul?" She whispered as they moved quickly through a crowd. He looked down at her carefully, but she was staring at the floor to keep her feet moving.

"You love Dawn, don't you." It was more of a statement than a question, but he grunted gently in agreement as it was an obvious thing to say.

"How did you tell her?"

He frowned, he wasn't too pleased with a nosy girl trying to ask private questions, but perhaps this was why Dawn had shot a helpless look at him. The silence clued the brunette in; "Oh sorry, I meant; did she just say it back?"

"No." He said quickly, she looked up a little too fast at his facial expression and turned a shade of green grey. He was quick to try and distract her; "She was paranoid, asking me if I was just saying it."

She nodded slowly and thoughtfully, the silence was held as he listened to her heavy breathing.

"Are you sure you're-" He panicked, vomit on your shoulder was never a good look. "I'm fine." She interrupted to assure him of her alertness; "You know, I'm glad she found you, or you found her…" She drifted off momentarily, then explained herself a little more; "She was so set on Ash, it got me really worried."

She felt him tense up at the name of his rival, someone who he had always had a little respect for, even when he kept losing.

"He's not right for her at all, actually, I don't think Ash is ready for anyone, he's so set on training. But what was I to say to her? There's not a soul on the planet who could get between that boy and his Pikachu…"

She stopped to catch her breath and continued again, she was mainly rambling on for her own benefit, but she knew Paul was listening, she knew he was clinging onto every word about Dawn, reading into everything she said.

"When I first met her, at the Wallace Cup, you popped into stories quite a lot. I think she was bias on Ash's behalf because of her crush-" again he tensed "-but I'm very observant you see. Through all the bitterness there was a sparkle in her eyes when she said your name, I could see she was smiling inwardly, then questioning herself. She admired your work, your dedication and began tripping over her scowls to find she was complimenting you. I knew something was there for her, maybe she knew all along that you liked her… She just didn't know she knew, you get me?"

He wasn't sure what to say, he was split into unequal parts. The smaller part, his rational side wanted to be hurt, completely offended, but he knew that he was cold, that was just what he was. The other side was overwhelmingly pleased, joyous and cheering in victory; he had made an impact on her from the beginning. He didn't realise at the time, because he was usually too busy trying to ignore her, a desperate attempt kick out that gut wrenching feeling in the pit of his stomach. Trying to block out those thoughts of clasping her and holding her tight to him, bowing her backwards romantically and not caring who watched.

"Sorry, you probably didn't want to know that." May whispered, when she lifted her head her cheeks had a little healthier colour in them.

"No I did, thank you." He grumbled, sitting her down at a Pokémon Center table while he got her a room. With a curious glance from Nurse Joy, she nodded and left the room to get a key. It left him with enough time to think; Dawn couldn't have wanted him to know any of this, so she'd sent him to find out something else. His mind was too full of May's words and his own thoughts that he could barely think about what could be on Dawn's mind.

Once thanking Joy, he turned to look at May, who had sprang out of her seat with a little too much enthusiasm, and by the look on her face she would pass out if he didn't do something.

"Sit down." He growled quickly, pacing over in huge strides to support her. He pushed on the back of her head to her lap; "Deep breaths." He said calmly, his voice soothing her as she gasped slowly.

"I'm okay, I just need to sleep." May mumbled, trying to push back on Paul's hand pressing against her spine.

"Paul, let me go to my room." She slurred as he let her sit up carefully.

He chuckled; "You look even worse now." He commented, only to receive a sarcastic grimace; "Thanks, you don't look too good yourself."

"That's because I'm predicting you're going to be sick any minute now and I'm not good with that sort of thing." He sighed, lifting her arm over his head and onto his shoulder. She looked at him carefully, and suddenly blurted; "you actually _are_ beautiful."

He wrinkled his nose a little as he mentally cringed; "err… thanks. I think you really are sick." He took her arms and lifted her slowly as she continued to chatter absentmindedly. "Dawn's right. There's no denying it, she's a very lucky girl."

He stopped walking and looked at her straight into her face; she was staring right back, scanning his face and admiring it like a piece of art. "I think I'm the one who got lucky."

He was careful how he held May's waist; it wasn't half as easy as it was with Dawn, who didn't care how he held her as long as he was. May had narrower hips, and he had to practically cling onto her waist so not to slip accidentally when she tripped. He was taken aback by how much skinnier she was to Dawn, who he thought was petite as it was! This girl was practically skin and bones, but what curves she had were enough to suit her tiny frame. He would have taken great pleasure in this moment if he hadn't known the feeling of holding Dawn, whose curves didn't stop and become jagged when he reached her ribs.

He snapped himself out of comparative thoughts before he let himself go too far, to find May had suddenly become a dead weight on his shoulders. He cursed out loud at himself for not paying attention and ended up carrying her up the rest of the stairs.

He lay her down and wrapped a light sheet over her, listening to her unconscious muffled sleep talk which went on for a good half minute until he could make sense of any of it.

"Drew?" He made out finally, and then he was curious about the way she whispered his name, it was like she was mistaking his own presence for the coordinator's. "Love…Too."

He rolled his eyes; that's the game he was playing. What a game plan! Either he was distracting the threats or he was an inconvenient romantic. Paul knew which option he would place his bet on.

"Good night May, it was good talking to you." He chuckled at the gullible girl who lay grumbling words of adoration over the green haired coordinator.

* * *

She woke up alone, no Paul; she must have slept in. Yesterday was a long day, she deserved it.

She groggily slumped down the stairs fully dressed, helping herself to a croissant and wandering over to Paul, who was frowning blankly out of a window.

"Morning," she sat down cheerfully, but he didn't reply, he showed no reaction or hint of emotion but his eyes looked moist.

"Paul?" She tilted her head around to see him, but he reacted in the most unexpected way.

"What do you think you're playing at?" He spat, glaring angrily straight into her eyes.

She blinked quickly; "What did I do?"

"Don't give me innocent, Dawn." He growled, emphasizing her name in hatred. He stood up sharply and wobbled the table; she winced slightly at his swift actions. He began cursing her a little loudly, people began looking over at them curiously.

"I don't understand what's wrong." She pleaded.

"It's funny how the papers do!" He slammed a newspaper onto her plate. She noticed a couple of others began flicking through a copy too.

She glanced down, but he began to seethe through his teeth before she could read anything. "I knew fighting my thoughts was a bad thing." He lowered his face to her level as he leaned across the table; "All along I knew you were just a two faced bitch like your little Kanto friend."

He slammed his chair out of the way and stormed towards their room, people flinched as he strode past them, others were staring at Dawn and whispering to each other.

She looked down at the paper and turned a couple of pages, her picture in her Sinnoh contest dress was in the top right corner, and in the bottom left was the green haired menace. The huge headline read:

'**Dawn vs. Drew: More than Rivalry?'**

She blinked in disbelief, why wasn't it sinking in? She continued to read frantically:

"_Sinnoh coordinator Dawn appeared in New Mauville's contest yesterday as her Hoenn Debut alongside some of the top coordinators of her generation, but sources show she's shown passion for more than just appeals and Pokémon battles."_

She felt her whole body begin trembling with an emotional overload, her mind began screaming as she forced her tear-blurred eyes to continue reading;

"_Several sources confirm the sight of the two fabulous coordinators, Dawn and Drew, exchanging more than just words. One witness claims their make out session was violent; describing that he pressed her against the lockers to which she seemed pretty pleased about as she began to moan uncomfortably loud."_

_Pleased!?_ She shrieked in thought to herself,_ I was distraught! It was violent!_

"_After hearing this, the editor agrees with me when I say the two looked rather distracted during the finals."_

_Too right, _Dawn fought the fluster in her lungs.

"_But the outcome of such a final brings the question; did Dawn do this on purpose? Drew, afterall, is a big threat to the coordinator world, did she use her beautiful, innocent looking face to her advantage? She was certainly dressed up for it._

_One thing's for certain, if this _is _something more, they'll certainly make one beautiful couple." _

_Ugh… _Dawn wretched at the thought, but bringing herself to reality made her realise the looks she was receiving.

The guilt she felt yesterday was nothing, today she was actually petrified her legs wouldn't be able to run after him. Scared her eyes wouldn't cry or her voice wouldn't beg for forgiveness. She knew she had to try, no matter how much physical pain it brought her; that could heal. How much _more_ emotional pain could Paul take!?

She fumbled around to find her card key to the room, only to find he opened it instead.

"Paul." She breathed, he stood completely cold as she once knew him, but shivered under the atmosphere instead of burning up with hate.

"Please listen." She begged, edging closer. He stepped to the side to let her in, but she didn't dare move out of his way to let him escape her begging.

"I'm so sorry…" She began, but stopped when he snorted and looked up. "Sorry you _stabbed_ me in the back or sorry you got caught?" He spat sarcastically. She flinched again at his glare, his eyes were full of such emotion, body crippling pain, heart stopping anger…

"Neither…" She dropped her head; "I didn't do it."

"Yes you did." He growled quickly. She nodded; "Yes, but I didn't want to."

"You're lying." He rolled his eyes at her, but she shook her head frantically; "I'm not I swear! I lo-"

He interrupted her before she could say the word; "So he _forced _you to kiss back _and _enjoy it? Let me guess, you didn't stop with sucking each other's faces, did you?"

"No Paul!" She gasped in horror, but he laughed in a deranged voice she'd never heard before; "enough of your lies. I don't know why I led myself into such pain." He couldn't control his anger and his voice broke at the end.

She was nearly sick with guilt, her stomach lurched to force her to step closer; "The newspaper twisted it Paul! _He _cornered _me!_" She took another step closer to him, they were literally inches apart, but he towered over her and seem miles away to her.

He leant back to look at her; "I'm not surprised, the way you looked yesterday. And _I_ was deluded enough to think it was for me, but you're all for yourself, aren't you!?" His voice lowered again to a hurtful, stabbing tone. She deserved whatever he threw at her.

"It _was_ for you," she protested; "only for you."

He ignored her and continued with his own rant; "You move on from one boy to the next when you find something better. First you meet your little travel buddy, but then you find I'm a better battle, sure to get further. Then you find a gorgeous coordinator who's already at the top and _I'm_ out the window. You see the pattern?"

She suppressed her breath in a feeble attempt to keep the first sob from escaping; he thought she was a gold digger, and he was a step on her ladder.

"It's not like that Paul please! There's no reason for loving you!" She cried as he scowled at the use of his own words. Tears were running freely down her face to the point where they burnt tracks into her cheeks.

He'd had enough, he pushed past her furiously, and she did nothing to stop him. He'd walked briskly to the exit when she began running after him, repeating his name in a pleading sob without caring who saw the charade.

"Paul! I love you!" She yelled gruffly across the street, it was too early for many to be about, but it was enough to make an audience. He didn't reply as he walked towards route 110 towards Slateport city.

"You and only you Paul! I fought for us! I don't want to throw it away!" She began growling as her sobs were choking her. She began coughing violently but continued to scream his name. He hesitated as he fought with himself, his head was arguing to look after her as she was hurting herself, but his will kept him walking; she was hurting him more.

She physically couldn't keep her legs moving, her whole body was weak without him now, like he'd taken her bones for revenge. He could have her organs if it made him feel a little better. She dropped to her knees to gasp for the final plea she could manage; "Please Paul." She whispered; "Don't leave me, don't walk away from us."

He stopped walking, and for a brief moment she thought he was returning to her, but he didn't turn around.

"Go home you silly, back-stabbing bitch." It killed him to say it, and his body was fighting the temptation to collapse too.

And then he walked away, leaving her to sob into the soil until it turned to mud.

**Oh noes; Ikarishipping is dying. D= Continue to flame Drew but he can't be all to blame. You're bias for Dawn!**


	23. Build and break

**There's no light in the tunnel yet, it only gets longer and harder to see. =]**

**Oh, and I thought I should give the chapters real titles, I hope you like them. ^^**

**Chapter 22**

Not sure what to do with herself now she'd wrecked four people in a day, (a record she wasn't too pleased to have set) she sat fully clothed in the bath for hours. Half of the water was tears, the smell of salt was overwhelming. She felt tainted and dirty, so this was the best she could come up with in this state.

'Go home,' he'd said, maybe he was right; maybe her mother could give her some advice on how to fix this. Could it be fixed? She pondered a moment; the damage was catastrophic, she'd be lucky to be friends with May again after years of not speaking. After another hour, she managed to bring herself to conclude that Paul was very unlikely to take her back if he couldn't forgive his own father for merely leaving. Compared to Dawn, a cheater and backstabber, Paul's father looked like a saint. Okay, so her mother might be able to give her advice on what to do next, how to move on…

She pulled off her sodden, muddy clothes and reran the bath to take a proper one, relaxing her tired aching muscles. There were no more tears; her body was dangerously low on salt water.

She dressed herself in the beautiful ivory dress he'd brought her, and pulled a long black cardigan over the top. She pulled dark sunglasses over her tired, unfixable red eyes; which she could get away with here in sunny Hoenn.

She packed her clothes except for the sodden ones, and left that horrible little room with a horrible memory tagged to it behind.

She turned to see ay walking past, her eyes were even worse than her own, which she didn't think was possible.

She wanted to apologise, but she fought herself; Drew had broken this heart. May knew this and shot an apologetic look to Dawn, her lip wavered and eyes scrunched as she held back another dry sob.

"Oh May…" Dawn gasped, as the brunette crumpled into her arms.

"He got you too Dawn, I'm so sorry!" Dawn couldn't believe it; "What!? Why are you apologising!?"

There was a brief silence as May managed to cough; "I dunno."

"This is not your fault May, don't you dare blame yourself." Dawn growled her warning sternly to her friend, to show her seriousness.

"It's not yours either…" May muttered, but Dawn shrugged; "I'm not sure what to think at the moment…"

May nodded gently, stumped for words; "Oh , I heard."

That stung a little, but Dawn felt herself numb so she could be strong for her friend.

"What are you going to do now then?" May asked quietly, Dawn knew May didn't have a clue what to do either, so was more than happy to let her copy her plan. "Go home, lick a few wounds, you know?"

May forced a giggle; "I might do that, sounds good."

"We're still friends then?" Dawn choked, which she scowled at the weakness.

May nodded; "I know you're madly in love with Paul – sorry – and how you disliked Drew from the way you glanced at him. I'm not as oblivious as Ash, I'm quite observant. I know you would me so intentionally malicious. When you knew that I l-" She cut herself off quickly, she winced the way Dawn had at the sound of Paul's name cropping up.

"There will be others, May. Look how fast I got over Ash."

May opened her mouth, but shut if quickly to protect Dawn from her thoughts. It was running through Dawn's mind anyway; _how long does a heart take to re-repair?_

"I don't think I can." Dawn whispered her answer, her voice was shaking and so a whisper was enough to conceal it; "But I shall try."

"You can always talk to me about it."

"Ditto."

They smiled feebly together, reading each other's expressions like a mirror.

"You're a great friend May, you're a beautiful, _beautiful _person."

May smiled a little more genuinely; "You'll always be there for me, and I don't know what I did without you before Ash introduced us."

They pulled together to hug, shedding what few tears they had recently conjured. They shared May's packing, and began casually strolling for the harbour.

In an attempt to take their minds off things, May changed the subject; "So you kicked his ass then? I'm impressed." She grinned.

Dawn nodded; "You told me to! How could I not obey!?" They giggled, gaining a few looks but not nearly as many as in Mauville city.

"So I can ask you this as your best friend right?" May pushed gently. Dawn nodded; "Sure why not?"

"_Did _you dress to distract? You did look pretty cute."

Dawn gasped in mock horror; "You don't think I'm good enough without!? Besides, you can talk."

They laughed again; "We don't have a very good reputation now, do we?" May giggled, stopping at a bench to wait.

"They're just jealous." Dawn chuckled.

It wasn't long until Dawn's ferry arrived, but it was long enough to have stocked up on more tears. She waited until the last five minutes of boarding time and May's ferry just pulled in.

"Will you do something for me, please?" She asked quietly, May nodded quickly; "Anything."

She fumbled around through her bag and pulled out her silver brooch. "I want you to keep this for me."

May looked at it and began stuttering; "But didn't-"

"Yeah, I don't want any distractions until I'm back on track." Dawn muttered, looking down at the pavement eagerly.

"You don't think this will work out?" May blurted, but Dawn sighed; "I'm out of optimism I'm afraid. If you want, you can give it back to me if I'm happy again. _If _you'll do that for me?"

"Sure Dawn, you _will _have this back. I promise." She took it from Dawn's clutches and fastened it to her dress. "I'll always wear it to remind me that if you can get over this, then I can."

Dawn nodded; "Bye May, I'll speak to you soon."

"Be safe." May replied, tears already crystallizing in her topaz eyes. With tear stained shoulders, they waved as Dawn disappeared into the horizon.

She did not speak unless spoken to; she didn't feel the need or have the energy to socialize. She stayed locked in her room and begged herself to sleep, but her body was aching and refused to, so naturally, her body won the battle.

When she knew her body wouldn't stave any longer, she reluctantly left her room and hurried to the nearest café. She ordered the first thing on the menu; her taste buds weren't alive enough to care what passed through her mouth. She paid and took it back to a table quickly and silently, but it didn't stop her getting noticed. This newspaper had wrecked her life, this was one time she didn't want to be in the spotlight.

Once the audience finally looked back down to their food, she was greeted by someone she didn't know. He was undeniably cute, his blond hair spiked around like he had pulled a hat off and he had amazing fashion sense for a boy. It wasn't helping her at all, the food wasn't going to stay in her stomach if it kept lurching the way it was.

"I wouldn't panic unless you want somebody to get hurt." He smiled naturally, his pearly white teeth were dazzling, it was hard to put his words and his expression together, it didn't make sense.

She frowned politely; "Sorry, do I know you?"

"No, but Saturn sends his regards."

It took her a couple of seconds, but she stood up quickly and screamed as loud as she could.

"Fine." He sighed; "You asked for it."

The lights went out and she couldn't see anything. She automatically reached for her pokeballs. When the lights came back on, everyone began screaming; several hundred Zubat and Golbat scattered around and attacked, preoccupying anyone from noticing Dawn being smashed over the head with a plate.

That was all she remembered of that journey.

**Team Galactic are baaaaack. They won't leave her alone until they get their Mesprit. =]**

**And without Paul there, who's there to save her!?**

**Dun dun duuuuuun. =]**


	24. Connection to afterlife love

**Hahaa, now I'm going to be even more evil and I don't think you'll like it. =]**

**Chapter 23**

"_Did you hear? That boy broke in the base to get the girl again."_

"_That trainer her trashed the place last time?"_

"_Yeah, he's a really good trainer, put up a big fight. Shame he wouldn't transfer to the team, he would have gone up in the ranks in no time."_

"_The Admins got in the way then?"_

"_Yeah, all three was too much for one team. He didn't stand a chance to be honest."_

"_Did they-?"_

"_Yep, he dropped dead like a Mothim in a heat wave."_

She screamed her way into consciousness to find she was locked up and caged like an untamed Pokémon. She yelled and rattled like one too. Nobody was there to listen for a while, but her voice refused to break, the screams kept coming whether she wanted to or not. She did want to though; she wanted answers; was he dead!?

"Oh Dawn, you could have just helped us in the first place. We wouldn't have got to this; after all, he wasn't going to ruin our expensive base again."

Her screams stifled a second, looking for the voice, it wasn't a face she was happy to see. "You evil, vile disgusting-" the curses continued a while; she screamed every word she could remember in her colourful vocabulary.

"Splendid, just what I wanted to hear." He chuckled, his blue hair was ironically as icy cold as his heart, and his face was jagged with wear. His skin was leathery, and his patient eyes were deep with wisdom and fury.

She growled; "I want to see him"

"Not possible, I'm afraid."

"Then I'm not helping," she insisted, but he just laughed at her. "You already are."

She stopped to try and calm herself, her will and knowledge attempted desperately to conceal any flicker of emotion, but it pulsated out of her like body heat. Her heart pounded so forcefully against her ribs it hurt, and her fingers wouldn't budge from their fists around the bars. No matter how hard she concentrated, she still couldn't keep her eyes from watering, or her teeth from grinding against each other.

"What are you doing to me?" She gasped, but Cyrus shrugged; "We aren't, we have reason to believe Mesprit is trying to contact you."

"And those reasons are?" She pushed, trying to keep her cool, but her heart fluttered like a Drifblim in a gale force wind.

"That heart beat for one, it's like your beating for two people." He looked at her chest in the area of her heart as if he could see it pounding underneath her flesh; "and your reactions are getting more in control as we speak."

She glared at his carefree face, he didn't flicker any emotion to her, but she could feel the radiation of excitement coming from him like a vibe. She studied his face carefully for any sign of this, but it was like he was totally unaware, he was just studying her back.

She instantly became worried, was Mesprit's link something he could use? Or would he just use her instead? Had Paul been killed!? She felt her 'vibes' filling the entire room and overlapping any other emotion. She saw his face flicker with her own worry, then smile as he overwrote it with an extreme force of will power.

"There's your third reason. Listen to what it's telling you."

She listened; it wouldn't hurt to know what was going on. She didn't have to tell him when this mystical being had instructed her. It was silent though, only the sound of her own rasps of breathing could be heard. Nothing had changed at all, but all her worry felt more intense than she had ever felt before.

Then the pain came, a tidal wave of not physical, but emotional grief she had been building up since the news of Paul and it had now began crashing into catastrophic pressure. The feeling in her limbs disappeared, her vision became blurred at the edges and her stomach was cripplingly painful. She dropped to the floor instinctively and curled around herself, her arms clutching her sides first, and then her knees pressing her middle.

"Get in there! The reaction is too strong, she's in pain!" Cyrus lost his controlled voice and panicked, several footsteps came towards her to pick her up, but gravity pulled on her stomach and her scream became blood curdling. She couldn't physically feel anything, they began injecting her from what she could see with some form of pain relief and her body began numbing. It wasn't her body that was in pain, it was her mind, her emotions.

Her only instinct was to scream and cry in agony, which she did freely. What was left for her to do? Was this her end? She deserved it to be painful; now Paul had died trying to save her. Her scream was hauntingly like his voice, her body began shivering at it, but she couldn't stop screaming, it was a vicious circle and it hurt.

"That must be Mesprit!" Cyrus yelled triumphantly. She continued screaming but focussed on the noise she was creating. It was the best sound she had heard in her life, the voice was so gruff; it was most definitely the voice she adored so much that her heart ached in longing. How was this happening though? He had been murdered, how was his voice coming through her voice box!? How is it physically possible for a human?

She didn't care, hearing his voice was soothing her, relaxing the pain of panic and replacing it with worry which was an emotion she could deal with. Worry was something she could focus on, work out. He isn't here anymore, not alive anymore, no more chances to apologise. If she lived through this pain it wasn't enough for her to forgive herself.

She would live this pain over and over for her whole life if it meant she could cling to his scream that was harmonising with her own. She would live it over and over if it meant it brought him back some way.

If Mesprit was doing this, where was it getting the screams from? How would it know what a dead person was feeling if they weren't alive to feel it!?

Then everything set into place, like the middle puzzle piece fitting in to complete and make a picture clear. Paul was alive, and Mesprit was sending his emotions to her so she wouldn't panic and send for the mystical being to be captured.

"He's not dead is he?" She growled, struggling to lift her head, he was bluffing to intensify her reaction.

"Who?"

With all the strength she could find, she pushed herself off the table and flew into Cyrus with all her weight behind her. "Tell me!" She yelled; "Is he alive!?"

Two of the grunts in the room were quick to grab onto her arms, so she flung her legs into the air as she once had to Paul. Except this time she landed on her target twice, she smacked into his chin, and with her other foot she stomped onto his nose and took great pleasure in listening to it crack. The screaming started again, and she coiled her legs into her recoil.

"Commander, we have intruders."

Plural? Paul would have come alone, it must have been alone. Cyrus walked out of the room with his hand covering his nose and the other reaching for a set of pokeballs. He scowled at her as the elevator doors closed, she smirked now she had complete control over herself, and it was Paul's pain she was dealing with now. That made her so much stronger.

The third grunt had grabbed hold of her legs, which she flailed in agony. She didn't realise she had kicked him in the worse place possible, he dropped her pretty quick. She continued to flail, his pain was terrible and getting worse as his anxiety grew and grew. Her screams stopped when a sharp, physical pain began seeping into her head, her body went into complete shock. The two grunts let go of her and backed off quickly, her body was stiffening completely.

"Are you mad!? You could have killed her doing that! The boss would get mad, do you realise how important she is to the mission?!" A grunt shouted hysterically, the panic radiated off him suddenly and collided against anger.

"She deserves it." The grunt holding a metal bar grumbled.

She did deserve it, he was completely right. Every pain she endured made her one step closer to feeling the pain Paul was, perhaps then he could forgive her, because she could truly be sorry. She could fight through this to tell him she was sorry one last time.

But her body would not fight, it couldn't. Her sight grew hazy to the point where she couldn't see detail, and no other sense was working. She concentrated on keeping her sight as best possible.

Then another pain came, she watched as she fell backwards, her reflexes didn't respond, she just fell. Her head smacked onto the concrete floor and her body wasn't reacting to the pool of blood underneath her.

The grunts began to panic, she could feel it in the atmosphere, and it heightened when she saw them tacked out of the way. A friendly face came into view, and once she knew she would be safe, she gave up the fight to stay conscious.

* * *

Never did I want to see her like that. I'd been close to death a few times now, but seeing her was such a shock to the system. She looked completely helpless, beaten, defeated, _alone. _Where was Paul!? Reggie said he'd take care of her no matter what! I didn't think he was _this _heartless.

We battled our way in here, Pikachu was keeping one of the Admins busy while I got in here. Reggie, Brock and Maylene had the others. Reggie took on Cyrus, if anyone could beat that boss it was me or him. He told me to get Dawn, which I agreed.

I found the room they'd locked her in on the collection of screens, and I saw them beating her, she wasn't reacting, she just stiffened. I hated it, how helpless she looked when the blood trickled around her on the floor. I was already running, I was burning up faster than Ho-oh itself.

I was quick to react when they saw me, Buizel (Who is extremely protective of Dawn, naturally) had already set off in an aqua jet. Monferno nodded to me as it set off with a mach punch, I took the other one out. It didn't take long, they were running to the lift in seconds.

I saw her lying there and at first I wasn't sure how to react, this strong willed girl had been overwhelmed by power, I saw her screaming when they advanced on her, this was far worse than the first time. The amount of hatred for Paul grew inside me, how could he leave her to get like this!?

She locked eyes with me for a second, a very, very brief second. I think she was relieved if anything, because her eyes began rolling and she fell to sleep, maybe it was better that way, so I pulled my jacket of and pressed it under head, the blood was coming from two places.

"What the hell were they doing to her!?" I yelled to let off steam, Buizel craned its neck around me worriedly, I couldn't look after it when Dawn was so helpless, I had to concentrate on her if she was going to get through this.

"Go help Pikachu, get an open space for Staraptor and me." I ordered quickly, they both nodded and began running.

I called for Staraptor with my spare hand, and it looked to me panic stricken, it had known Dawn as long as I have.

"Are you up to carrying both of us?" I didn't have time to explain to it, and I had no other choice, it nodded steadily and spread its enormous wing span and lowered itself so I could lift Dawn on.

She was stupidly light, Staraptor wouldn't have a problem, and it carried me with ease. Either I had grown a serious amount of muscle to be able to carry her so easily, or Paul hadn't fed her either. I wouldn't be surprised.

I climbed onto my trusty flying type and straddled my legs over her so she couldn't slip on either side. I ordered it to fly as fast as it could, and stop for nothing. Not even Pikachu, the others could take care of him. I knew Dawn was edging death far too dangerously to stop.

I released Gliscor, and was quick to order it; "I need you to free the way for us, and I _need _you to be strong, for Dawn, okay!?" My voice was desperate, high pitched and oozing with worry. It nodded bravely in determination, not focussing on Dawn, and fired up its fire fang ready to attack.

We got through the first set of grunts without a hiccup; we just flew over them. It was the Admins I was worried about; I prayed that Buizel would be ready to blast at anything charging for us.

It was, I was so proud, it shot a gyro ball right out of the way, and Monferno took the chance to use flame wheel on the Bronzong.

Reggie looked almost sick when he caught a glimpse of her, and Maylene burst into tears; I'd heard about their fight. It made me feel a little bad when I had an argument with her straight after.

"You'll get her Pokémon!?" I shouted to Brock, he ordered a double edge from Sudowoodo and threw her bag at me. At least now I had her Pokémon's protection if they followed us.

They wouldn't follow us, the others would finish them before they got the chance to follow. No one was going to let this happen to Dawn again.

If she got though this.

_Ouch. _My stomach twisted at the thought.

No, I must stay strong, for her, she will make it, she will, she will.

She has to…

**I assume you realise who's perspective took over there.**

**That is officially the first time I have written in first person for a solo fanfiction, so Ash was a pretty good person to use. I might do it again sometime, I quite like the change.**

**So you know why I used this change, I wanted Dawn to look objectified, it I used third person like I usually do, she would still be involved a lot more than if Ash describes what he's doing and how she looks. That way she looks that little more helpless. I hope that's what I put across.**

**Anyone panic at Paul dying? Now you know he's fine, I bet you can guess why he's panicking, and when he's going to pop up next. =]**


	25. Break down begging

**Let's go back to third person for a while. **

**Chapter 24**

She didn't look like Dawn, he had to keep reminding himself she would make it; the doctors said so. He had watched the little red light above the operating theatre door with deep interest as they put her back together. He spent hours alone, not having the space in his mind to worry about Pikachu or the others, all he could focus on was Dawn, only her road to recovery. Many times he'd seen death himself, but it was nowhere near as frightening as seeing your friend nearly slip away from you.

When the others had arrived, they all looked completely exhausted, the Pokémon were immediately rushed to Nurse Joy, who was already treating Staraptor and Gliscor.

"How is she?" Brock managed to croak the question they all wanted to know, his voice was raw from battling fiercely for hours.

"She's getting there, the doctor said she'll recover and be her normal self in a matter of months." They all sighed with relief at the answer, but the air in a hospital was always so tense.

Johanna's arrival was bad, she practically screeched in horror at the sight of her bruised daughter, fresh from the operating table. They explained to her that Dawn had taken a few blows to the head and that her body shut down to protect itself. The cuts had been stitched up and there was no worry of them healing. They went on to explain that her heart was beating fast enough for two, a sudden worry that crossed the mothers mind was that her daughter was pregnant, but it was nothing her body couldn't handle. They assured her that her daughter wasn't pregnant and the protective mother relaxed to take care of her only baby.

Paul's entry was even worse. Ash, Brock and Reggie were the only ones in the room with her, Johanna was busying herself with buying new clothes for her daughter and Maylene had to leave for her gym. Ash sprang out of his chair in a blind rage as he reared up to attack.

It wasn't the reaction he expected off his rival though, as he fell into the door frame, clinging to it as he took one glance at her. His breath became quick and sharp and his limbs trembled frantically. His legs gave up on him, he dropped to his knees and pressed his face into his hands and openly sobbed.

Ash watched in amazement and disbelief, this cold hearted boy lay completely crushed in his brother's arms, trying to shake free from Reggie's grip.

"What's happening to her!?" Brock coughed as he watched Dawn begin to contract every part of her body, her spine was first, it arched as her hear pressed into the pillow. Her knees bent and toes curled under, her hands balled into fists causing the needles to rip out of her skin from the pressure. If the doctor's hadn't rushed in to pin her arms and legs down, she would have continued to contract into a complete ball.

They tried to relax her; "I can't get a vein! She's too tensed up!" The one mumbled.

"She's in a state of shock, even her heart and lungs are contracting." He glanced at the monitor above her showing one straight line that was too high for it to be dead; it was stuck in systole stage, not diastole.

"Her lungs are filling." She one said carefully, as she opened her mouth. Then the screaming started.

They all stared in horror; nobody was sure what to make of it. Reggie frowned; "That sounds like you."

"But how?"

"It doesn't make sense but…" Brock trailed off in through, nobody remembering to push him to continue as Paul began to hyperventilate and the screaming tightened.

"Paul it's you!" Ash growled; "She's reacting to you."

"But she's unconscious." Reggie's frown furrowed even more.

"Paul, you need to calm down." Ash gritted his teeth, not bothering to question this mysterious ability Dawn had acquired, it could wait until later.

"I can't you moron, my girlfriend is dying." Paul shouted back, stifled by sudden inward sobs. Reggie shook him to take no notice of Ash being ripped out by Brock and the doctors trying frantically to fix Dawn.

"You have to try, Paul! Find any other stable emotion and think as deeply as you can, talk to her! I know you don't like to, but do it for her." Reggie muttered, and his younger brother nodded.

Was there a more dominant feeling to this shock and worry that struck him? He searched, running through his mind until he found one.

"Dawn, I forgive you, it wasn't your fault." He quivered nervously under Reggie's clutch; "I'm sorry I abandoned you."

"_She's relaxing, whatever you're doing; keep it up."_

He sighed; "I should have known this would happen, and I wasn't there to protect you this time. Now look at you, look at what I've done."

He couldn't speak anymore, the emotion continued to spread in overwhelming ways, he had never felt his eyes fill up before. Reggie watched Dawn's eyes tighten as a reaction to whatever Paul was feeling; it was bizarre how she was in total sync to him when she was so unaware of the rest of the world.

This forgiveness was making her relax, and it was to him too, he knew he was going to support her no matter how much fighting of his own emotions he had to put up. No matter how open he had to be for her, his cold self was shoved into a corner so he could focus on her alone.

"Fight though this Dawn, Please. I'm begging you." He sighed, shuffling on his knees to her bed to sit by her head.

Reggie watched his brother in shock, this was not his brother at all, he was completely different. It soothed him to watch Paul opening up so much to such a special girl, she was making him healthier, bottling up was never good to such extremes that Paul took.

"How are you doing this Dawn?" Paul breathed quietly; "How are you copying my heart rhythm?" He pressed his hand onto the left side of his chest and listened to the rapid beeps that represented her pulse.

"May I?" The one doctor asked, holding out an attachment for an electrocardiography machine. There were a lot of leads to attach. "If we can understand how your pulse if affecting hers, maybe we can find a solution." The doctor explained, Paul nodded back quickly and a trainee nurse fetched another bed.

He lay back on it; he could tell the young nurse took great pleasure in learning how to place six of the leads onto a healthy, muscled bare chest. The other four leads were attached to the end of his limbs. The doctor mumbled some instructions to the nurse, who pressed quickly into the monitor and his own pulse rang out along side Dawn's.

"Dawn's is faster…" Reggie frowned. "Listen." Paul insisted.

"Dawn has her own rhythm, but between her own, there's a syncopated rhythm to Pauls, look at the graphs! How is this possible?"

There was no answer anyone could suggest, this was against human nature. The solution was obvious enough though; "Try to keep calm, Paul. Her blood pressure is already stupidly high."

Of course, this came with its advantages for Paul, usually only Johanna would have been allowed to stay, but seeing how Dawn was physically dependant on Paul's health, he was kept there like a medicine on standby, when really he was the disease.

The meeting of your girlfriend's Mother is an extremely important step. Of course, such a strangely linked couple could only expect a strange meeting.

"Ah, so you're Paul!"

"Yes Miss, it's nice to meet you." He said politely, bowing his head and shaking her hand. Unlike most greetings, theirs was very quick to go into such deep conversation of their circumstances.

"Miss, I've apologised thousands of times to your daughter, and I think I own you one too."

Johanna raised her eyebrows and sat down; "Oh?" Paul stayed standing up in front of her and nodded; "I am so sorry I let your daughter get into such a horrific state. You must think I'm a horrible person, and you're right-"

"Paul."

"and if there was any way the roles could be reversed I would-"

"Paul!" She chuckled, and he stopped quickly after a swift apology for being rude. "You are already doing more than anyone else on the planet can for me." She reached out her hand and hesitantly placed her hand over his heart; "You're keeping the most important thing in my world alive. You're fighting yourself, I can see it. It doesn't matter how she got into this state, that's not your fault. The fact that you're still here fighting with her proves you're sorry."

"Thank you Miss." The feeling of a motherly figure touching him lovingly was extremely shocking. He had to physically concentrate on keeping calm. She noticed this and pulled her hand away quickly; "Sorry, honey."

He nodded and looked over to Dawn, knowing very well that Johanna was analysing his every move.

"You really do adore her don't you?" Her eyes glistened with joy for her daughter.

"She's my world too, I love her."

"I love him too."

He stiffened quickly, and her mother gasped. They both looked over to the girl simultaneously to see her tired but beautifully dazzling blue eyes look slowly between them, a faint smile reflecting on her pale face.

**And Ikarishipping ignites the tunnel to spot the end. **

**Yep, that's right; we're close to the end. 30 chapters-ish I think.**


	26. Accepting defeat

**Chapter 25**

Paul opened his mouth to speak, but nothing happened. Johanna nodded to her daughter and left the room quickly with a huge smile on her face.

"You worked it out." Dawn attempted a beaming smile, but had to settle with a loose grin. He was still speechless; he had no idea how to start. He let his feeling do the talking, he knew she could hear them now, and so he practically leapt over to her and gripped her jaw bone with both hands, she reached up to take his neck too, and he leant down to her to receive what he had been longing for during a long week and a half. She was more than happy to cooperate, but her eyes spilled over with nearly two weeks worth of tears.

"What, what's wrong?" Paul panicked; she could feel the sudden rush flow through her. She smiled and closed her eyes; "No, I'm overwhelmingly happy, when we're both happy it's like I'm on a high!" She laughed and opened them to see his beautiful face, her smile stopped when she began to talk; "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought you'd died."

It clicked for him the same way it had for her when the final clue clicked into place; "Mesprit?" His eyes widened. She nodded; "I would have let myself go if I didn't feel your worry." That worry he knew was the best worry he could have ever felt now.

"So you can feel what I do?"

She nodded; "When you're happy, I am; literally. It'll take a lot of getting used to if it stays this way." She laughed feebly but genuinely. The smile wiped to a worried expression when she thought of a question; "That pain you felt."

"When I saw you," he said quickly, knowing exactly what she meant. She nodded, but turned her head guiltily; "You shouldn't feel that. I shouldn't have inflicted so much pain on you."

"I don't care, you're okay now." He said, trying to brighten the mood.

"Ash?"

"They're all fine." He assured her, then chuckled; "He gave me a little talk. He got very worried about you, but he won't push me when you're in this state."

"Was it him who came to save me?" She asked, Paul nodded; "his friend, Reggie and Maylene too." He said her name with no bitterness, just completely casually. Maybe her heroics had given him some respect for her.

"Where are they?"

"Maylene and Reggie went home; the other two are at the Pokémon center. You'll see them all soon enough." He chuckled, knowing they'd all planned on surprising her.

There was a pause until she smiled again; "You know what you're feeling right now?"

He frowned, this _was_ going to get annoying, but at the moment it was fairly cute; "Yeah…" he rolled his eyes.

"I feel it too." She loosely grinned again. "I love you that much too. Please don't forget that ever."

He shook his head; "You don't need to apologise, it's not your fault you're too bloody gorgeous."

She rolled her eyes; "Not too bad yourself." Purple and blue never looked so great together. There was a silence as they stared at each other a while, he slid his fingers into her hand and she clutched onto him with all her strength.

"Oh, your friend came second in the Grand Festival, Ash told me to tell you. Henry, was it?"

"Kenny!?"

"Yeah, that's the one." He grinned mockingly at himself.

"That's so great! I can't believe he got so close!" She squealed, but her voice broke. He frowned at her; "Take it easy please."

She felt worried suddenly, and sighed; "Stop worrying, I'm fine. Everything's just a little exhausted."

"You're not fine, yet. You're in here for two months at a minimum."

"Two months!?" Dawn groaned, slumping into her pillow. Paul chuckled; "At least your attitude's in tip top shape."

"Yeah, shame the rest isn't." She muttered and a scowl wiped across her face as she looked longingly out the window.

He sighed and sat down; "You'll be out in no time, and I get to stay with you the whole time anyway."

"Hmm, I guess that sounds better."

He laughed and leant back into his chair, now she was awake and mentally as fine as ever, he could relax and get more sleep than he had in that horribly long week.

After a few hours, her mother couldn't hold herself from her daughter any longer. She knocked, then entered the room quietly to see Dawn smiling happily as she watched Paul sleep. She paid no attention to the nurse taking a blood sample from her left arm, and concentrated on her right hand clutching Paul's instead. She looked up at her mother; "Hey."

"Hello honey." Johanna welled up a little, and took a seat next to Paul. "Any better?"

"I'm getting there, Mom."

The mother smiled, then looked to Paul; "Hasn't left your side since he got here, you know. Hasn't ate much either, he's been completely distraught. He blames himself."

Dawn smiled at her information; "It's my fault, and I'm glad it happened. If I hadn't have left him behind he'd probably be in the same state as me."

Johanna frowned at the 'optimism,' this silver lining wasn't very pleasant. "Dawn, this isn't either of your fault. You are not to blame."

"It doesn't matter," Dawn sighed, "I'm going to recover and things will be better than before." She grinned; things were good enough before, now she'd be on cloud nine every day.

"Reggie told me about him, how you're doing a wonderful job making him healthier."

Dawn laughed; "I don't really see it as work." But she frowned after; "and he's healthy anyway."

Johanna sighed; "I've been told what he was like, Dawn, Ash wasn't-"

"-Ash knows nothing. He doesn't like me with Paul because they're rivals." Dawn snapped, this same old fight came around like a broken record. "I'm happy, and he is too. Why can't you all just leave us to it!?" She shouted, causing Paul to stir awake quickly; the amount of fury she was emitting affecting them all.

Her own pulse rate quickened, causing Paul to panic and he was too sleepy to react. The nurse had to quickly inject something into Dawn's wrist to calm her down.

"Paul, I'm fine, stop worrying please." Dawn breathed slowly, those anger management books were now coming in handy.

"Sorry." He mumbled, following her lead and taking deep breaths.

Johanna waited until they both looked fairly relaxed to talk; "I'm not against you two, you're beautifully in sync with each other. How could I be against someone who adores my daughter so much?"

Paul was looking extremely confused by this, but smiled at Dawn anyway; who had a scowl on her face again.

"Okay Mom, let's just drop it." Dawn complained, and her mother nodded in agreement; "Ash and Brock would like to see you." She muttered quietly, but Paul's grip tightened slightly around her hand.

"Okay, I want to thank them for saving me." She changed her facial expression to a smile quickly, and Paul's hand loosened and shook away from her quickly. "I'm going to get something to eat."

"Oh, okay." Dawn sighed; a little disappointed with this petty rivalry now. He walked out the room quickly, and Dawn looked to her mother; "See what I mean?"

"Makes me glad I had a little girl." She smiled at her daughter proudly, then kissed her forehead and went to fetch her two best friends.

She had about twenty minutes alone; she assumed her mother had gone to fetch them in her car. Ash peeped his head around the corner and stumbled into the room, Dawn had her eyes closed, but she could feel him beaming over her ecstatically as he shuffled to her side.

"For a hero you're not exactly coordinated on your feet." She opened one eye to look at his surprised face. Brock grinned behind him, and she opened her other eye; "Hey guys." She whispered quietly, because it was just about all she could manage. Her eyes brimmed with a wall of tears as they both fell over the bed to embrace her, one on either side and Pikachu on her stomach. Her waist was being squeezed to extremes and she was sure her heart monitor quickened in tempo.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Brock muffled into her ear, and Ash hummed in agreement; clearly he was emotional too.

"What would I do without you guys?" She asked rhetorically, Ash laughed an answer anyway; "Dawn, what would _we_ do without you though!?"

"Well you survived before." She mumbled as they pulled away, both of them frowning at her.

Brock shook his head; "But not now, Dawn, we love you like family."

That was enough; the amount of love being released by two brothers and a Pokémon was enough to make a slowpoke cry. She openly sobbed at them, and the embrace between the three restarted. It was a good job Paul wasn't here.

"I-love-you-too guys." She hiccupped a sob between each word, the feeling of their relief in the atmosphere may not have been as strong as Paul's which she felt simultaneously, but she wasn't exactly at her strongest both physically and mentally.

They settled down and allowed her to shut her eyes for a little while after emotionally exhausting herself; which the doctors had warned her against.

"Did you get your last badge?" Dawn looked over to Ash, who scratched his head quickly; "yeah, Pikachu wiped his Octillery out with relative ease and we struggled with Ambipom but it wasn't too different in style from yours."

_Again, ouch. _She grumbled to herself, she missed her own Ambipom dearly. Ash continued without noticing her flinch; "Gliscor was brilliant! He really pulled through for me, Luxray had an ice fang but we came up with some really great moves! It wore out his Raichu and Pikachu finished it with a twist of our new technique. You should see it in action! It'd win the grand festival for sure!"

She grumbled at the thought, how she wished she had been there. Ash noticed this time; "Did you hear about Kenny?"

"Yeah, that's great." She tried to sound enthusiastic, but both of the boys knew she wished she'd been the one to beat him.

Brock patted her arm; "You'll get there next year, and think of all the experience you'll have until then."

"But I've already competed in the Sinnoh contests around here except for Sunyshore. I'm not going back to Hoenn…"

The two looked to each other; "I think you should tell her now." Brock grinned.

"Tell me what?" She frowned, watching them beam as Pikachu hopped over to Ash's bag and began nosing around in it excitedly.

"Well…" Ash began; "We were supposed to wait until Maylene and Reggie were here, but seeing as you're getting closed to depressed," he winked at her jokingly; "we think you should know right away."

Dawn nodded; "So if I lie to Reggie and Maylene, pretending that I needed some serious way of cheering me up, I get my surprise!?"

"You got it." Brock laughed. Pikachu had found the present and hopped over to her with the envelope in its mouth.

She smiled and thanked the electric mouse, then faked a grimace for them as she ripped the top open. She pulled out two sheets of card and flipped them over to find plane tickets.

"Johto?" She raised an eyebrow sceptically, but didn't sound rude. Brock nodded; "Olivine city, to be exact."

"Yeah, it's right by the beach and there's a battle area…"

She let Ash trail on about his stories of being there himself, she looked at the tickets and slide them into a fan like a deck of cards; "Why is there only two?" She interrupted, was Brock not planning to come?

"For you and Paul." Brock raised an eyebrow, then laughed; "You thought we'd make him stay here?"

"No, I just thought… Thanks guys. That's a really sweet thought." She welled up again and sighed at herself.

Brock nodded; "It was Ash's idea."

She turned to look at him blushing completely red; "Well I saw the way he felt about you and it made me realise what you see in him."

_Oh no… _And then the tears began to flow again, even more happy than before; it was enough to radiate the whole hospital with glee.

**Hahaa, Dawn can't handle her emotional overdose of happiness. =]**

**Bit of a space filler, but yay! Ikari-Holiday!**


	27. Instinct Pressure

**WARNING! WARNING! Tis a little hot here again. XD **

**Sorry, it's gotta happen. =]**

**Chapter 26**

"Right I'm ready." She grinned, popping out of the bathroom of their very well paid for Villa. Paul looked up after sighing with relief; "About ti-" he stopped short, his jaw wouldn't move to make the rest of the word.

She frowned; "I don't want to know that feeling!" She scolded, but giggled anyway.

He squeezed his eyes closed and tried to think of something else so she didn't have to feel the attraction to herself. He opened them again quickly when he felt her straddle onto his lap. His mouth went completely dry as she practically purred right by his face, her lips gently pouting millimetres away from his. Her hand ran up his chest quickly to leave a tingling sensation as she reached for the collar of his summer shirt which was left open to hang loosely on his shoulders. She gripped around a cluster of the material and stood up quickly; "Come on! I want to go to the pool."

He rolled his eyes; "what an anti-climax…" He muttered, letting himself be dragged towards their private pool.

"You didn't really think I'd be that easy, did you?" She shook her head teasingly.

He smirked his signature smirk; "I was hopeful."

She let go of his shirt and placed a towel on her padded sun-bed; "Well I'm not, I might be forced to feel exactly the same as you but I have some self control." She nodded in a-matter-of-fact manner.

She pulled off her sarong and that rush of emotion pulsed through her again; "Will you quit it!?" She raised her voice.

He shrugged; "Can't help it. You should wear something a little less flattering."

"_You_ should get some help." She stuck her tongue out, and then headed over to the pool whilst scraping her hair into a high ponytail. He chuckled at her pathetic comeback, and pulled off his shirt ready to go in the water too.

She stood on her tiptoes to ready herself for a dive in, when a sudden rush of worry flooded through her; what if she banged her recently recovered head on the bottom?

"Stop it Paul! You're breaking my flow." She growled, only to receive a muttered apology as he sighed to relax. She dove in with an elegance her mother had taught her, and Piplup ran out of the Pokémon room to dive in too.

Another splash was soon hitting the surface and soaked her again; she watched the blurred figure swim swiftly to her and surface right next to her.

"So you're an Olympic swimmer too?" She snorted, and he sniggered; "No, don't be bitter because I'm a better diver."

"I'm not! And you so aren't." She challenged. He shrugged; "I don't believe you."

"You don't have to, I know I am better." She stuck her nose up as she turned, and then swam away with Piplup's assistance. The sudden urge to swim back and kiss him was almost unbearable, she rolled her eyes and forced herself to keep swimming; she knew very well he was doing _that_ on purpose.

"Stop messing with me Paul, I mean it." She threatened, not turning to look at him. He shouted back to her; "Stop being so stubborn and get back here. You know I use whatever I have on my side to my advantage."

She rolled her eyes; "Too right." She watched as her Buneary appeared with a cute rubber ring placed neatly on its cream fur. She danced up to the edge and poked her toe into the water adorably and then bounced as high as possible to reach the middle of the pool and flailed its legs cutely. Dawn grinned; "That's beautiful Buneary! We have to remember that for the next water based contest!" Nothing distracted her better than contests.

"Buun-eary!" She nodded in agreement, its fluffier fur standing on end.

The midnight haired girl hadn't taken notice of Paul creeping up on her and take her waist from behind. She turned her head to look at him peering over her shoulder. She attempted to wriggle free but failed and stopped when he kissed the top of her spine. He felt her shiver and laughed quietly.

Then he figured her out whist she uncontrollably turned and began to kiss him passionately; she didn't respond to direct requests, instead she liked subtle ones, like showing how happy it made him to see her react.

"You're bad." She muffled through gaps of their contact, she meant to make it sound scolding, but the feeling she was being forced to feel made it sound like she was attempting to seduce.

"Mm… I know." He laughed, pulling away from her to watch her face burn up. They hadn't realised Mamoswine had decided to join them in the pool as it began to charge to dive. She looked over at the noise; "No!" She squealed, but it was too late, the great mammoth Pokémon created a huge circular tidal wave and sent them all flying. It seemed satisfied by the outcome as it splashed around innocently.

The panic washed through her again as Paul surfaced frantically to check if she was okay. "Dawn?" He yelled, swimming over to her quickly to find her giggling. "I'm fine, will you quit it? Mamoswine just wanted to join in with the fun."

Mamoswine roared, but looked a little sheepish because of Paul's reaction. "Won't you let your Pokémon out? They'd like the sun too."

He rolled his eyes; "Later."

"But the sun's out now." She pushed, only to receive an unintelligible growl. He swam for the ladder and climbed out, she went completely red just like he had when he saw her in her bikini. She turned quickly and swam underwater to cool off her burning face. She reached the edge and found Pachirisu waiting for her to surface; "Pachii?" It tilted its head sweetly, but Dawn shook her head; "You can't come in here Pachirisu, you'll shock us all."

"Chipa…" It sighed, the skipped over to a sun-bed and curled up. Dawn climbed out and sat beside it, stroking its static fur gently, it stretched in content of being fussed.

The sudden urge to be alert pulsed through her, and she looked up to find Paul was throwing a bottle at her; she caught it and thanked him for warning her. She looked down to see sun tan lotion and grinned, he wasn't so bad after all.

"Can you do my back please?" He beamed at her with his gorgeous smile. _I take it back. _She giggled and nodded with a roll of her eyes.

* * *

"Oh my, the food looks amazing here." Her eyes practically shone in sparkles as she eyed up the menu. Paul raised an eyebrow and shook his head, then looked back down at his own menu. They ordered, eventually, and dined quietly for a while, until Dawn managed to spark up a topic.

"You've been to Johto before haven't you?" She smiled, and then stuffed a collection of vegetables in her mouth. He nodded; "Yeah, a while before I met you and your friends. I'm surprised you remember that."

"I have a good memory." She winked, then continued to eat. "I'm happy it's us you know."

"You remind me every day, Dawn." He sighed, still looking at his own food.

She slammed her fork down; "I'm sorry I feel so strongly about it." She lowered her voice so nobody in the room except Paul could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He frowned at her, but she just glared back.

"I mean you sound annoyed that I feel like this. You never say it back."

"You know exactly how I feel." He muttered, looking at his plate again. "It'd be nice to hear it once in a while." She whispered, almost too quiet for him to hear, but she stood up and walked out of the restaurant. She felt tired anyway.

_Way to go Dawn. _She growled to herself, _couldn't just keep your mouth shut could you? _She knew she was under pressure of this sudden change in her mind, but it was affecting him too.

She sighed and slammed herself onto the bed, she was barely able to pull on her pyjamas on she was that exhausted, she didn't even notice Paul came in a couple of hours later.

* * *

Their bodies were sweating under johto's summer moonlight rays as they writhed on the sands, completely in harmony with their happiness. His muscles felt so good against her body, it was so tempting. She scratched at his back as he kissed at her neck, sometimes hungrily, sometimes delicately so she shivered with pleasure. She ran her hands through his hair and pushed him closer, his deep, quick breaths rippled past her ear as she hitched her legs around his waist, she couldn't push him any closer. She fought the urge to scream as he'd told her to be quiet in case they got caught, her senses were wild with excitement and she had to muffle her screams into his mouth as rolled gently across the beach…

She shot her eyes open, panting heavily and beads of sweat lay in her temple. She found she was nuzzled in his neck, her nails digging into his chest and their legs entwined. She pushed herself backwards and sat up, he jolted awake too.

"Wha…?" He groaned groggily, he looked around in the dark as he adjusted to see her glaring at him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to keep fantasising Paul!" She growled, and he propped himself onto his elbow; "Ah."

She shivered; "I'm barely fifteen Paul. I'm not ready."

"It's natural Dawn, it's a guy thing, I can't help it!" He rubbed his eyelids as they stung from what little light seeped into the room.

She scowled; "Well try."

"I am," he sat up and crossed his legs so they weren't touching at all. "It does happen, you know."

"Not yet." She insisted, and he nodded; "I'm not saying now. Though I don't see why not…"

"No, Paul." She gritted her teeth, but his influence on her body was making her tingle. "Stop it now." She shook with force as her mind and body battled again.

"I'm not doing anything; I'm too tired to think." He frowned, lying back on the bed.

He was right, this was her. Her instincts were screaming that 6 months of love was enough to make her confident enough with him, but her mind was shaking its head in disapproval.

"Go to sleep Dawn." Paul whispered as he rolled onto his side with his back to her. He felt her brush her hand along his shoulder blade and around to his chest, then yank him to lie on his back. Her instincts crashed her down to him, taking his arms and pinning them down and sitting across his torso so he couldn't refuse her lips parting his own. He let her for a little while, too tired to really think it through until he realised he had to stop her. His arms were far too strong for her to put up much of a protest, and he rolled her onto her back.

"Go to sleep Dawn." He repeated, leaving her rejected as he drifted into slumber with a huge inward grin. She could feel it.

**Now I couldn't let Drew get all the heat, could I?**


	28. A new type of Appeal

**Chapter 27**

He woke up gently to the horrible strain light caused whenever your eyes have been shielded from it for too long, this sun was not Sinnoh sun, it was far too hot for a Sinnoh morning. He groaned when he realised what had happened last night, and he wanted to go back to sleep to forget it for a few more hours but the smell was brilliant, he couldn't help but sniff in investigation.

"Morning." A friendly voice chirped as its owner bounded through the door with a tray, an over-friendly voice. It only made him groan more. She placed the tray on his lap to reveal a variety of different breakfasts in small proportions so he would be able to eat them all, she clearly had already ate hers because she skipped into the en suite to shower. He munched on the toast absent mindedly, completely confused by her actions. Clearly the confusion caused her to react too, there were several 'umm's and 'arr's until she called to him; "Paul? Do you use Conditioner or Shampoo first?"

He chuckled; "Sorry. Shampoo."

"Thanks." She giggled sheepishly in reply, then began to hum something as she continued.

What was she doing? Why was she being so easy and laid-back? Was he overreacting, or was she underreacting? He didn't want to ask, but he knew he had to. He sighed furiously and took to the shower in the larger bathroom.

"Did you not like the pancake? I made it the way Brock showed me to..." She frowned, obviously concentrating on her method and checking it for errors.

"It was fine." He said simply, pulling his khaki brown combat shorts on and sitting on the bed. She frowned; "Is there something wrong?"

He looked at her; "No." He shrugged, but she frowned even more; "What's wrong, I can feel the confusion and it's making me paranoid."

"Why aren't you angry at me?"

Her frown upturned; "Why would I be?"

"Because I told you to wait." He lowered his voice as if someone would hear.

She shrugged; "That's your opinion and I respect it. I'll wait, after all, I'm not_ just_ emotional, I have a little of Azelf's influence on me, just a little less than you." She grinned.

"You'll wait for me?" He raised an eyebrow skeptically, and she nodded; "As long as you want." She added.

"Uh huh." He smirked. "Yep." She nodded again, patting her knees to create sound in their silence.

"Can I ask you something?" He shuffled back to lean against the head rest. She nodded to let him continue; "What made you change your mind?"

She sighed; "I guess I realised that you weren't making me feel _all_ of these emotions. Some of it had to be me, so it made me feel... Ready."

"And what would you say if I'm ready?" He closed his eyes so he couldn't see her reaction, he already knew the answer.

"I don't think I'd be _saying_ anything." She giggled. "Now my turn." She shuffled excitedly; "What happened to over-confident Paul who said it was going to happen some time?"

"He got shoved behind bars by my common sense." He said monotonously sarcastic. She snorted with a hint of annoyance; "And you're seriously not budging on this?"

"I wouldn't say seriously, I'm easily tempted." He mused, opening an eye to see her smiling mischievously.

"Temptation is a sin." She purred as she advanced on him, crawling up the bed like a Luxray stalking its prey.

He sighed; "So is fornication."

She stopped; "That's so old fashioned though. It doesn't stop people in today's society..."

"And you want to fit in today's society."

"That wasn't my intention."

"Then what is?" He growled lightly, leaving her stumped, she hadn't put a reason into words. She just... Did.

"You're not budging then." She pouted, and he chuckled to confirm her summary. "I'll get you next time you're feeling even ever so slightly turned on." She giggled, it sounded so wrong to say that. He rolled his eyes; "I'll be there to fight you off again. You're so stubborn and troublesome."

She turned away from him to look over her shoulder and winked cutely; "You love it."

That was enough for him, she could play him like a harp. The over confident boy had broken out of the bars and knocked his common sense out with a baseball bat. His instincts drove him wild with excitement as he pounced for his prey. The Luxray was now hunted, only this wasn't quite such a near death experience.

* * *

She shivered as he ran his index finger up her bare spine, only to be interupted by her bikini straps; "No swimming today?"

"I have to back with a tan don't I?" She giggled, turning her head accessorised by large sunglasses to look at him. She watched him roll his eyes, then lie back himself. She grinned at his perfectly kept figure that was all hers for the keeping, and he put up no fight when she claimed her territory.

"Take a photo it lasts longer." He snickered sarcastically.

She frowned; "Why would I do that when I can look at the article in the flesh?"

"Because the 'article' doesn't like being stared at like a zoo creature." He sighed, turning his head to look at her.

She smirked again; "Five more minutes?"

"Fine." He sighed, turning his head back towards the sun but could see in the corner of his eye that she was beaming.

* * *

"I can't believe how fast the holiday has gone." She moaned, packing a few things ready for home.

He sighed; "We still have today and half of tomorrow." They _had _been there for 2 and a half months, surely she'd had enough.

"Yeah I guess." She groaned. Clearly not.

He watched her scowl frantically as she stuffed her worn clothes into the suitcase. "Did you buy a present for May?"

Dawn gasped; "I totally forgot about her! I haven't spoken to her since..." She stopped when they looked at each other awkwardly and corrected herself before she made the mistake; "for a long time. She'll be really worried!"

"I'll bet. We can go to the market today if you'd like." What a stupid question, Dawn quickly got over her end-of-holiday blues and jumped ecstatically; "I can't wait! I better go change!"

"Oh dear... What have I done?" He sighed rhetorically, but chuckled anyway.

**Okay, so I'm filling, but the end is going to end with a great end. (That's a lot of ends)**

**So keep reading, I swear you won't (hopefully) be disappointed and if you are I'll stop writing. If that's possible. **

**Oh, and a little spoiler; I'm writing a Contest shipping soon to replace this when it finishes! **


	29. Its only ever been you

**I'm sorry this one has taken a while to update (well a while compared to usual) I've had a lot of other things to get started off ready for this one's end. **

**Chapter 28**

My mind hasn't been functioning properly recently, I've been blindly walking across this region I have only visited briefly once before.

I didn't stay at home; too many memories both happy and sad were making me feel worse. Fresh air and a foreign place was the best cure.

That's the only way I can describe it, an illness. My mind isn't feeling very well, we're sick in this physically healthy body. If I let down my guard; then just like medication wearing out, the illness starts to ache your bones.

Of course, thinking about that wall I've built in my mind to block out the past is making me queasy enough. I stared at the ground instead, desperately attempting to take my mind away from that obstacle. No, not obstacle, because they're made to get past, I didn't want to see what was on the other side ever again.

I pressed my legs to walk faster; the rain was beginning to get heavy here. Sinnoh was a lot colder than Hoenn. I'd been walking from Canalave for a while now, I need to get somewhere to sleep before the storm reached me, but I didn't want to stay in the harbour city. I stopped at the tiny beach and walked along a little pier, I didn't fancy using Wartortle to pull me across and I was wet enough anyway. I settled on my starter Pokémon, I knew he wouldn't enjoy the rain, but we could easily get across.

Blaziken shivered as I expected, but stared loyally at me. "Can you jump across the rocks for me? I need to get across as quickly as possible."

It nodded quickly, and whisked me onto its shoulder. It leapt from rock to rock with its powerful legs not even wavering at the added weight I was causing. We were across in no time, and I thanked and returned it quickly, if_ I_ didn't like the rain then Blaziken certainly wouldn't.

Though I should have stopped at Jubilife, I was desperate to get to Twinleaf. I cut through a forest that wasn't a route on the map, and hoped I would be okay. The canopy of trees was keeping me away from the rain well enough, and I pulled on my rubber wellingtons in case a thunder struck one of them.

I didn't bother releasing any of my Pokémon to accompany me, why make them suffer the trek too?

The problem was, I had time to think. I didn't like spare time, it made me ill. I couldn't survive a night in this rain, canopy or not. I concentrated on where I walked instead of where it was leading me to. It didn't work.

I knew the reason why I was coming here; I wanted to see whether Dawn had succeeded in what I had failed to do; get over the love of her life. It stung again and again when I thought of the word 'failure.' How pathetic am I?

I'm a coward, too afraid to move on. Scared it will happen again. I know he doesn't share my feelings and won't ever, so why am I still clinging on the hope that he might realise he made a mistake? I mean, Dawn is way more beautiful than me, I didn't stand a chance against her. I don't blame him for loving her, she would have been totally right for him if she wasn't so madly in love with Paul.

But was she anymore? I hoped with all my heart she was on the healing route, but a tiny niggle in my thoughts preyed she was in the same state as me. Isn't that terrible? My selfish thoughts want Dawn to prove I'm totally normal, and not a coward.

I was at a door before I realised it, my thoughts had carried me so far! How long was a dreaming about that nightmare of reality? I knocked anyway, questioning myself as I waited. I was under a dry porch now and I already felt warmer. I heard the chiming voice of what could only be Dawn's mother, as she clicked a key and opened the door wide.

"Oh, hello. May I help you?"

I laughed, how many times had I heard my name used like that? She didn't get it, then I realised she didn't know me.

"I'm May." I nodded, and her eyes lit up in realisation. "Of course dear, come in!"

I couldn't refuse such an offer, I pulled off my wellington boots and left them outside, then hurried into the warmth.

"My my! You look freezing! I'll get you some of Dawn's clothes!"

I nodded to her appreciatively; "Is Dawn here?"

"No, but Ash and Brock are."

I frowned, why were they at Dawn's home when Dawn wasn't? Johanna nodded at my expression; "I'll let them explain." She glided up the stairs and her Glameow followed her elegantly, she called out my two friend's names as she disappeared. I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room and waited.

"May!" Ash grinned as he practically bounced down the stairs, Brock followed a lot more carefully, but carried an equally happy smile. They stood in front of me and Ash began chattering; "Where have you been? What are you doing here? I mean, why did you come to Dawn's house? I bet you wanted to see how she's doing. Have you seen Drew recently?" Obviously they didn't know about the break up between Paul and Dawn, or the reason behind it anyway. I winced at the name, Brock stopped Ash quickly; he's always been the observant one.

"M-May?" He stammered, my face must have gone blank, I couldn't connect to my body at all. Then a sudden prickle seeped in my nerves began to report feelings again. My eyes were stinging, why were they blurring? My body must have collapsed, because by the time I forced my eyes open I had crumpled into Brock's arms. My name was being called by both of them, but all my mouth could respond with was gasps and sobs. Why was I doing this again? I couldn't remember, all I could think about was how ill I was.

"May, sweetie?" I looked up at Johanna, she didn't ask questions for some reason, but just looked at me sympathetically, as if she knew what I was crying for. She handed me some of Dawn's clothes, we were the same size, coincidentally. Though I never had as much curves as Dawn, so the clothes hung loosely off me whereas it would have hugged Dawn cutely.

"May, are you alright?"

Johanna let us have some privacy, Brock sat on the armchair and Ash pulled me onto the couch.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to Dawn, where is she?" I stared at his face with a desperate glare in my eyes. He looked to Brock and back to me, Brock answered instead; "She's on holiday, with Paul. She had an accident, May."

I swear my heart forgot to beat then. My breathing came to a stop as my voice managed to squeak; "what?" Was I panicking about Dawn? Or myself not getting my happily ever after. How could I be so cruel to think this was about myself, I'm such a horrible person for even letting it cross my mind. No wonder Drew doesn't like me. The sobs started again, this time Ash pulled me onto his shoulder.

"She's okay, May. She's already recovered enough to go on holiday, remember?"

I nodded; "What happened?"

"Team Galactic got her on the ferry."

The ferry. Oh my.

That was mere hours after I left her, how could I have left her on her own!?

"We managed to get to the base in time to save her, she was a mess when Ash found her." Brock carefully told me. I felt Ash shudder under my grasp at the thought.

"She suffered from two blows to the head, and internal bleeding because of them. She was in the operating room for hours, but she pulled through with the help of Paul."

Paul returned for her, my illness made me nauseous; I'm so alone now and yet I'm alive. Dawn was alone and nearly lost her life. How ungrateful am I?!

"They're coming back soon; Johanna kindly let us stay here until she returns." Ash looked at the kitchen door.

Johanna popped her head around the corner; "You're welcome to stay too, May dear." She walked from the kitchen to the stairs and went to her room.

"You need to warn her." Brock told Ash quietly, he nodded and bit his lip. What was I being warned about?! What was wrong? My heart had thumped its way to my throat.

"May," he struggled to find the words; "Dawn is very different now, she's changed after the attack because of the pressure she was put under to survive."

What kind of change? Did the blows to the head make her suffer with Amnesia? Had she lost the ability to see, or hear?

"Well, because she was pressured into summoning Mesprit with her emotions, her misery was becoming a danger to the emotion spirit. They told her things that made her so depressed she was close to suicide, or giving up."

I can imagine what they would say, because the one thing that would send her to such an extreme was Paul.

Ash knew I understood that and continued; "To save itself from being forced to appear, Mesprit used what power it had left to send Dawn a message. It tortured her, but she could feel Paul. She can feel every emotion he does."

I stared in disbelief, was that possible? I couldn't get my head around it, if Paul felt happy, Dawn did too? Wasn't that just sensing the atmosphere? Ash could see my confusion.

"It's hard to describe when _I_ don't know what it is. But every tiny emotion Paul has, Dawn feels it in the same part of her mind, it was weird to watch."

Watch?

"While Dawn was unconscious and recovering, they tested Paul when we realised he was affecting Dawn. Dawn's heart rate contains her own rhythm, and Paul's too, so she beats twice as much as the average person now." Brock was better at explaining this to me, he knew the facts.

"Dawn says it's like he is forcing her to think something, but really he's just acting the same as we do, being happy, sad…"

"Cold." Ash added bitterly, though it wasn't as bad as it used to be.

Brock glared at Ash than eased up as he looked at me; "When she comes though, you have to know that she can't control what she feels anymore. If you anger or upset Paul accidentally, it's Dawn who will react. You must remember that she can't stop herself, she's not siding with Paul."

I understood, she wasn't choosing to be angry.

"She tends to say things, and she can't help it. It's hard enough to control yourself, but she has to put up with two sets of emotions."

I got the idea, I nodded to stop him; "Dawn's one of my best friends, I know she wouldn't hurt me on purpose." It was still a shock to me, how was that possible? I didn't care, I've seen enough weird and wonderful things in this world to believe what they were saying.

"May?" Brock tiptoed around my name, me and Ash both looked at him, I could feel his head shaking at the side of me and his grip tightened. As if he was protecting me, but why, what was Brock doing that I needed to be protected.

Brock ignored him anyway; "What happened to you? And er…"

Ash cut him short; "All we want to know is if _you're_ okay."

They wanted to know about Drew. That flinch earlier had given me away, but they both loved me too much to ask me.

"He doesn't like me at all." I shrugged, though my heart was throbbing in my throat. "I surprised Dawn didn't tell you." Of course, she wouldn't have, there was too much going on in her life for her to relive that horrible past memory.

"He liked Dawn." Brock assumed, I nodded and Ash tightened even more, this time to support me so I didn't fall off the couch and shake violently.

"He told me before we were about to battle, so I was too preoccupied and he beat me." Ash's fist clenched, he was always overprotective.

"He made a big thing of it, and pushed Dawn to make the newspapers believe there was something going on between them."

Ash realised why Paul wasn't there to save Dawn during her accident, the look of guilt on his face was horrific to watch.

"May, you can do so much better than him." Ash spoke suddenly, Brock nodded in agreement. He even added his own compliments to make me feel that much worse; "You're a beautiful, talented coordinator and he doesn't know what he's missing out on. He'll be eating his words when you're grown up and a grand festival winner."

That did sound good actually, mainly winning a ribbon cup, but making him jealous when I'm happily settled with someone else would make this illness feel so worth it. Revenge was my cure.

I must have been deep in thought again, I didn't realise the television had been turned on. I was lay on Ash's side with my head rested on his shoulder, and Brock had sat the other side of me and pulled my legs onto his lap. They both patted me reassuringly from time to time, Brock giving me the odd sympathetic glance.

I was quick to fall asleep in the safe arms of the two first best friends I ever gained.

* * *

I woke up to realise I was not sat on anything; I was bobbing up stairs quietly. For a moment I didn't register, but then I looked to my side to see Brock walking ahead of me, and Ash carrying me up the stairs. When he got me through the door, he lowered me onto Dawn's bed that Brock had pulled the quilts back from.

When he gently pulled his arms from under my weight, he realised I had woken up; "Sorry, we didn't want to leave you on the sofa." He whispered; Johanna must already be asleep.

"Thank you." I smiled feebly, and he sat on the bed with a worried expression. "May, you're going to get over him, trust me."

Since when did he know about this sort of thing? The Ash I once knew didn't have a clue about relationships or love that didn't involve Pokémon.

"Dawn told me she liked me once. I couldn't love her back."

"Why?" I remember her telling me this; I remember what he had said back to her.

"May, I love _you._"

Wow, wasn't expecting that one. I sat up quickly, desperately trying to see him in the darkness.

"Ever since you got lost in that grass jungle, I realised I was anxious to keep you safe. I once put it down to my promise to your father, but I kept doing it. Without a thought I'd throw myself after you, May. It's like I have no control over myself, when you grip onto me when I'm mad; I calm immediately. And the hardest thing I've ever made myself do was let you go on your journeys alone."

I let my thoughts trail out of my mouth; "W-why didn't you tell me back then?"

"Because you were so mad about Drew, you have no idea what it's like to have such a burning jealousy for all those years I've known you."

Great, now I felt even guiltier.

"Why are you telling me now?" Oops, I didn't mean it like that.

He sighed; "I thought you should know…"

"No Ash, I meant are you doing this for yourself, or to cheer me up?"

The ruffle of his clothes made me assume he shrugged; "I've wanted to tell you a long time." He paused; "_Did_ it cheer you up?"

That was a very good question that I wasn't quite sure how to answer. My mixed emotions were clogging up any path for clear thoughts to process.

"Yeah." I blurted a whisper; "Yeah I think so."

And then I realised how blind I actually was, I completely took for granted this boy's dedication to me. I saw Drew and Drew alone, never once stopping to think about how many times my life had been saved by this golden-hearted boy. The gold was spilling off his tongue as he spoke, he was a never ending source of pureness, never once had I doubted his kindness, but I didn't give him enough thought to realise that deep in my mind I was storing this adoration for him. It was locked away once by thoughts of Drew, but now he'd broken it down and caught me so I didn't break with it. Oh how beautiful he really is! How could I have ignored it all this time?!

Wait, am I saying this because I'm craving attention? Surely I couldn't let myself use him for his affection. I reached out my hand; if I felt anything when I made contact with his skin then I knew I had jumped from the wall of Drew, waiting to be caught by my hero.

His skin, oh his soft, soft skin. How it burned under my touch, of course it did, we were igniting a flame. How could I have doubted myself, how long have I subconsciously known that we were perfect? How could I have held it off this long for some green haired pretty boy?

"Green would never go with red." I muttered, and his cheek pushed against my hand, I heard him breath a laugh.

"Red was always my favourite colour." He grinned, and I felt his hand clutch around my tiny wrist. Again with the tingling, that would take some getting used to.

But I didn't want to get used to it; it felt perfect when he naively pressed his lips against mine. I suppressed a laugh, how cute. I suddenly switched the roles we'd once taken, I was now his mentor. He followed my lead as I held onto his hands and led them around my back. I shuffled closer and slid my hands to his neck once his hands had settled against my spine. My whole body was tingling, this passion was building up the fire.

And it burnt every last feeling for Drew away in those brief moments, and I hadn't felt so good since before I met the jerk.

**Yay! Advance shipping!**

**I must point out now that I am a very big advance shipper. It was the first shipping I ever read and so I am very bias towards it against Contest shipping. **

**Besides, if my contest shipping is anti-advance, then shouldn't this anti-contest be advance shipping?**

**A nice balance, now I can please Advance shippers and Contest shippers!**

**Don't worry, Dawn hasn't been forgotten. **


	30. Panic Attacks

**Sorry! I haven't updated in a while because I've been getting a load of my other fanfics on a roll. **

**Wow, you didn't take to Advance shipping as well as I'd hoped. But we're near the end now, so there won't be much of it, but without it, Ikarishipping won't get better!**

**Chapter 29**

She opened the door carefully, the flight had been early, and she knew it would have been a nice surprise. Paul had never been to her home before, and was curious when he entered; she could feel it.

"Stop messing." She scolded in a low hiss; she looked over to see he was peering through a photo album her mother must have been looking through.

"Come on." She whispered, holding her hand out so she could lead him through the dark, she knew the place backwards.

They tiptoed up the stairs, along the one side as the middle usually creaked. She jumped but stayed quiet when she got into her room and turned the light on.

There was her best friends, except Brock of course, lay on her bed. Ash was completely sprawled across while May clung onto him soundlessly.

"Aww..." Dawn cooed quietly, though a part of her wanted to vomit. "You don't think it's cute?"

"I don't like cute." He said a little too loudly, she hushed him quickly but Ash already stirred.

She pushed for her and Paul to get out, but Ash smiled at her; "Good to see you're back."

"You too." She fought the urge to growl at him on Paul's behalf. She shoved at Paul's arm, and grinned at Ash; "So _she's_ the one then?"

Again she nearly rolled her eyes; she shot a glare at Paul instead.

Ash smiled at her, indicating a yes. It suddenly made sense of why he was acting so strangely around her when she first met May.

"I'll see you in the morning." She smiled, and switched off the light for him.

She pulled a quilt and pillows from the airing cupboard as quietly as possible; it looked like the sofa was the only other choice as she assumed Brock was in their spare room.

"Why do you have to be so mean to Ash?" She asked once they were downstairs.

He didn't reply for a moment, but just lay on the sofa instead, and she joined him and pulled the quilt over them. As he wasn't answering, she tried to see if he was feeling anything, hatred, annoyance, anything. But there was nothing, nothing that she knew wasn't hers. It was weird to feel like she was the only emotion in her body, how was he doing that?

"Paul?" She pressed her hand onto his face and sighed with relief when she felt his pulse race. "Don't do that!"

Again he didn't reply, and she was beginning to wonder what was wrong. She exhaled slowly, and turned away from him, too exhausted to try and get him to talk.

"Sorry." He whispered finally, just when she was on the edge of falling to sleep. She yawned and nodded, pulling his arms around her waist.

She felt her heart rate rise again, and giggled sleepily; "Love you too."

* * *

"Dawn!" A huge squeal left her mothers mouth as she ripped her daughter from Paul's arms.

"Mum…" She groaned, it was not the best wake up call she'd had. She could feel Paul's amusement, but ignored it as a burning annoyance overwrote it.

"Oh I'm so glad you're home! I've missed you! You too Paul!" Johanna squealed, causing Paul to go a little red.

"Mum, I'm glad to see you too, but we need to wake up first." She mumbled, and her mother let go of her; "Of course, I'll go get breakfast going for all of you."

Of course, Brock, May and Ash the human dustbin was here too, and she knew her mother enjoyed to cook.

"I'll help!" Brock bounded down the stairs, waving to Paul and Dawn as he passed completely fresh faced.

"Your family is loud." Paul grumbled, pulling on his jacket. Dawn laughed; "yeah, but Ash and May aren't, they like to lie in."

He grumbled again, and she just smiled; "I'm going in the shower."

He looked reluctant to let her pass, but stood aside. She skipped up the stairs now she was fully awake, and was quiet when she passed her own room.

She stepped in, the hot needles breaking against her skin to make her muscles relax from a long flight.

The sudden urge to cry was inevitable, it completely caught her off guard when her mouth let out a crying gasp. She didn't know what was going on, this couldn't be Paul; his emotions were never this strong. He didn't ever have the need to feel this sad, but she felt isolated and completely… Alone.

She couldn't keep herself in control, she stepped out of the shower with her wobbly legs and scrubbed her face as best possible; she needed company as soon as possible.

"What's wrong with me?" This hadn't happened before, and there wasn't exactly anyone who could explain it to her, she was alone.

"Paul!? Paul!" She called quickly, not caring who she woke up, the whole of the household looked at her as if she were crazy.

"What's wrong honey?" Johanna frowned, but May suddenly flew down the stairs; "Dawn!" She squealed excitedly, crashing into her best friend and squeezing onto her waist.

"Hey May," she attempted to be happy to see her friend. May pulled away from her but still clung to Dawn like they hadn't seen each other in years.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

She laughed nervously; "May, you didn't even know what had happened until it was over."

She bit her lip; that had to be Paul's influence. May didn't seem to notice; instead she continued to chatter about how worried she was.

Dawn looked over to Paul, he wasn't even looking in their direction, he sat in the corner away from Ash who had sat on the sofa and ignored him.

"Kids! Breakfast is ready." Johanna called, Ash was the first to spring up and May was quick to follow.

Paul stood up and eyed her carefully; "What's wrong?" He said blankly, she couldn't quite understand what was up with him.

"Nothing, what's wrong with _you_?"

He frowned; "I don't know what you're talking about." She grinned back at him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"That." She stated, he wasn't responding to her at all, it was like he wasn't acknowledging her at all. He didn't reply again, and she scowled; "Fine. I'm hungry anyway."

* * *

"So what are you going to do now you're home honey?" Johanna questioned, though she aimed it at everyone, now that Dawn was home and safe, everyone could go their own way if they chose to.

"We need to go see Reggie," she spoke as pleasantly as possible, "he and Maylene will be wondering about us."

Ash nodded; "I'd like to see Reggie too, maybe he can help me with my training."

Dawn slammed her hand into the table; everyone looked to her and looked away quickly to their food. All except Ash, who looked to Paul; "You got a problem with me seeing your brother?"

"Ash…" Dawn groaned, but she could feel herself trembling, she fought herself to grip onto Paul and try to calm him down.

_Not in front of Mom, not now, please. _She begged in her mind, but she found herself standing up sharply and glaring at her best friend.

"Dawn, sit down please." Johanna said calmly, with a hint of order in her voice that was extremely intimidated.

" I didn't save Dawn for you, but you could still be a little more grateful." Ash muttered, and Dawn couldn't stop herself; "Shut up Ash! Paul would have done it if he were there and you know it!"

Ash glared back at her; "Well he wasn't, so he should be thankful _I_ was."

"Paul doesn't owe you his life, I do!"

"Sit down." Paul yanked on her hand, and she did quickly, she was panting with frustration, how did he fight this kind of fury?

Ash was still in slight shock at her reaction, and he stabbed at his food angrily. May was in a state of blushing, she was new to this. Brock had kept completely calm, but she knew he was holding onto Ash's other arm to keep him from reacting again. Johanna picked up her plate and wandered over to the sink, she couldn't eat now.

She inhaled slowly, closing her eyes and then opening them to look at Ash again without being blind with rage; "Where's Pikachu?" She asked politely.

"As soon as Buneary knew we were here this morning, they went out in the garden." Brock said, chuckling lightly.

She nodded, suddenly feeling guilty, Ash looked really hurt; "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." He said bitterly, she pursed her lips together at the twist in her chest. Paul's self control was admirable, if this was how he really reacted.

"That's enough, all of you." Johanna put her foot down, "now if you can't get along then stay away from each other."

"Fine, we're leaving anyway." Dawn knew this was her own reaction because of the way Paul looked at her. She didn't wait for him, he wouldn't be left in there alone.

"We're going?" He rose an eyebrow at her, she felt impressed, so assumed he was pretty proud of her.

She glared at him; "Yeah, no thanks to you."

"What did I do!?" He growled, watching as she packed her travelling items for them.

She stuffed a bottle in the bag, then looked up at him with a glint that could only remind him of himself.

"You did nothing." She shouted, not caring that the entire house and probably the next door neighbours could hear her; "You did nothing, Paul! And I'm the one who has to fight for us against my own friends!"

She crumpled over forwards, gasping for breath. He quickly grabbed onto her as she went to collapse, his heart racing furiously against her own.

"Dawn, calm down, stop this now." He warned her as she slowed her breathing gradually. She was practically whimpering when she managed to calm herself, he pulled her closer and let her use him for support.

"I'm trying, Dawn, I am." He hushed her carefully, trying not to trigger another attack for her.

"I know you are." She panted, having to gasp for air between every word. Maybe they hadn't accepted each other, afterall…

**Hehee, so a little stalling, I know. But the next chapter is the last one! **

**Of course there'll be an epilogue, no need to worry. ^^**


	31. Fairytale finish

**Okay, last chapter. D=**

* * *

**Chapter 30 – Fairytale finish.**

She sat beneath the crowd, screaming wildly for a great battle. She did not sit with the savage swarm though; she was far too special to the challengers to do that.

With Piplup in her arms, she shuffled nervously in her box, the tension was getting to her and she wasn't even battling.

He was half way through his six on six battles, and only one of the opponents Pokémon had gone down. It wasn't looking very good overall, but the face that it was Cynthia made it amazing that he'd managed to defeat her Garchomp.

She had now released a Togekiss, and Paul had his newly evolved Electivire out. He made shockingly quick work with it; Cynthia was amazing even at a disadvantage.

She then released her Gastrodon, who was ordered an earthquake. Paul used his protect then attack technique, and ordered a Brick Break.

Gastrodon fired an ice beam to defend, resulting in the brick break being used merely as a defence.

"Earthquake." Cynthia called excitedly, it looked like she hadn't had a fair fight in a while.

Electivire wobbled to a stand, Dawn gasped at its state, but she knew Paul wasn't one for substitution.

"Ice beam again." She called, and Paul shouted for a thunder punch. It ran through the beam while Gastrodon struggled to hold it back.

"Now Brick break!" It continuously punched until Gastrodon was out. People were muttering to each other in the crowd, they hadn't seen any of the other Pokémon that Cynthia had, now she was cornered to show them.

She threw a pokeball and everyone held their breath as it materialised. It was medium sized, which meant it would be speedy.

A Lucario, it knelt with its receptors rattling wildly, and then it stood and opened its eyes with a look of determination to its foe.

"Earthquake!" Cynthia was clearly hoping the same technique would work seeing as Electivire was a physical attacker. Keeping it away was her best chance.

"Brick break!" Paul growled, and its Pokémon jumped over the ripple of ground heading its way then ran for Lucario.

"Aura Sphere!" She ordered, not wanting a super effective attack to land. Both attacks landed and sent both Pokémon towards their trainers. Lucario stood wearily, but Electivire was out.

_At least Paul's caught up a lot. _Dawn thought, not liking the odds of the outcome. She had faith for him though because they'd put so much effort into helping him train and come up with new techniques; as much as he objected to her help.

He released his Honchkrow, this had a very good advantage, and they'd worked against a Lucario before.

"Use Haze!" Paul called, much to Dawn's surprise. She refrained herself from calling out her protest, surely he was doing that on purpose.

Cynthia smiled; "Stone edge!" With the ability to see Honchkrow's aura, it fired rocks towards the flying type, who dodged with ease.

"Sky attack!"

Cynthia was comfortable with the surroundings, it was Paul's plan for her to be too confident and knock Lucario down. After all, it was Honchkrow's haze, so it could surely see through it. He was betting on Honchkrow's ability to land a critical hit, and it paid off. Lucario couldn't take anymore after Electivire's battle.

"Milotic!"

Another Pokémon the crowd didn't know she had, Dawn was growing very excited with Paul's upping chances seeing as Honchkrow was raring to continue.

"Shadow Ball!" Paul called, which Milotic countered with a mirror coat. He replied quickly with a night slash which would cover the psychic attack. It flung itself through the protection Milotic had and tackled it to the floor.

"Ice beam!" Cynthia responded as Honchkrow gained height away from the water type.

Paul panicked suddenly; "Dark pulse!" The attacks collided to the point where the haze was consumed by an explosion.

They waited for a while, but Cynthia wasn't expecting a sky attack to be crashing through and into Milotic. Paul was up by one Pokémon now.

"Good job Honchkrow! Keep it up!" Dawn called, and Piplup flailed excitedly too. The crowd was getting extremely excited now, Cynthia had one Pokémon left. Honchkrow was exhausted, but Paul still had two left, hopefully his flying type could at least exhaust this last Pokémon for a quick defeat with his last Pokémon.

Cynthia grimaced, her grace wasn't as well kept when she realised she was backed into a corner with a terrible type advantage; "Roserade, go!"

Paul practically grinned, which made Dawn excited too, she could feel how he wanted this so badly. She just hoped he wouldn't get cocky and make a mistake.

"Sky attack."

Mistake number one; Cynthia responded with a sludge bomb which pinned Honchkrow to the ground. She then flicked her wrist and Roserade landed a solar beam, knocking Honchkrow out completely.

He wasn't smiling at all anymore, but Dawn could still feel that he was very calm and not anxious at all.

"Magmortar, Standby!"

Dawn clapped her hands in delight; she'd forgotten what was left on Paul's team due to the excitement of the battle.

"Toxic!" She called, and Roserade pressed its bouquet-like hands together and blasted large purple blobs in the fire type's direction. Paul countered them with well aimed will-o-wisps, and a small explosion occurred and quickly lifted. In that time, Roserade had covered the distance and was closing in for a short range Solar Beam.

"Smog!" Paul called, stopping any light from being absorbed, Roserade landed with nothing to attack with. "Fire Punch!"

Paul took advantage of what little time Cynthia had to respond and landed a fire punch to sent it soaring into the wall behind Cynthia. It scrambled up, but panted heavily.

"Giga Impact!" She shouted, this was her final move, she just hoped it would be enough to defeat the fire type.

"Fire blast, now!" Paul was growling extremely loud, though the crowd were intimidated, they still cheered for what was the closest battle with Cynthia that anyone had seen since she was champion.

The star shaped fire wrapped its 'limbs' around the attacking Roserade and engulfed it with flames, it screeched in agony.

"Flamethrower!" Paul flung his arms to the side and Magmortar mimicked his actions, the flames began burning in its cannon-like arms and it took aim to add to the cage of flames. Once they landed, the fire blasted up like a waterfall, sending Roserade up with force too. They released, and Roserade landed on the floor completely fainted.

Cynthia's mistake; letting Garchomp get all the training.

Dawn squealed louder than the whole crowd put together, but her body was in total shock in synchronisation with Paul's. She dropped Piplup in an attempt to scramble over the wall that kept attacks away from her. He had his back to her, but she slammed into him and squeezed his waist. He didn't respond, he was in total shock.

"Paul! Paul! You did it!" She was squeaking down his ear, she knew he could hear her, but his body wouldn't move. She shook him and turned him towards her so she could hug him properly. She bounced excitedly in front of his eyes, trying desperately to be patient so it could sink in for him.

She eventually rammed into him again, clutching onto his waist and hiding her face into his shoulder from the entire screaming crowd.

"Paul, you're a champion!" It was meant to be a whisper, but she had to shout it over the roar emitting from all the watchers. It worked though, his arms wrapped around her, completely trembling. He was suddenly scared under the millions of eyes, he was no longer a challenger; he was the reigning champion over all of those eyes.

He left her to support him as he turned to Cynthia as she approached, a wide beam across her face; "Well done, Paul; that was an amazing battle." He nodded to her, unable to speak.

Her smile widened and then she turned to Dawn; "Can I borrow him, please? I'm afraid you can't come with us."

Dawn nodded, but she wasn't sure she could let Paul go; he looked ghostly white compared to his usual tanned self.

Carefully she slipped her arm from around his waist and picked up her annoyed Piplup and watched them walk off from the crowd. Cynthia waved, but Paul kept rigid; he never was a people person.

She decided it would better if she went to her seat so she wasn't alone under the screams of the crowd, they were buzzing around excitedly, and cameras were still flashing so she hurried back to her seat.

* * *

He had been in there a while, obviously registering took a long time; she met him in a small room where a member of staff had led her to. She poked her head around the door carefully; he was staring off into space again. Now that they had a little private time before the press attacked him, she grinned and scuttled over to him with her arms rigid to hook around his neck.

He flicked his eyes to her and she could feel his happiness but he wasn't showing it at all. He lifted his arms out of the way and she sat between his legs, lifting her own over his one.

"Congratulations, Champion."

"Thanks." He said quietly, he still had a lot of shock pulsing through him. There was a small seeping of how proud he was twisting at the pool of how proud she was of him.

"You've worked so hard, you deserve this." She placed her hands onto his face, her cold fingertips sending his heart rate racing faster than it already was; "Steady now." She warned, they'd had a lot of practice of getting over these little outbursts, but she still had to warn him.

Three years of practice was still not enough to calm him when she kissed him, and she wasn't very helpful either. Three years and instead of climbing out of the pool of infatuation like most couples, they sank deeper. They harmonized like no other could compare, the bond was stronger than any relationship. She filled his heart with the emotion he never had, they were family even without a family. And they loved each other, completely besotted by each other's presence.

She pulled back to look at his frightened eyes, they were child-like; now he'd caught his dream he wasn't sure what to do with it. He'd spent years chasing it, but never did think about what would happen when he did.

"Help me." He whispered, not taking his eyes away from hers. She giggled; "I'm right here, don't worry." It was adorable to see him act more like a boy than she had ever known him, and she had to giggle to stop herself from crying. He got used to her way of counteracting the overwhelming emotion she got when they matched.

She kissed him quickly once more, then stood up; "Ready?" She held out her hand and he stared at it for a while before huffing.

"Do we have to?" He grumbled, stepping behind her until she reached the door. She stopped and grinned, rising onto her toes; "you'll be fine, we have to get home some time."

He lowered his head closer to her level; "I like the sound of that."

"Now now," she kissed him again; "we wouldn't want to overwhelm you, would we? You must be exhausted." She tapped his nose with her spare hand and he rolled his eyes at the fuzzy love she always showed him. He'd rather not be all lovey dovey cuddly cute, though he was very much in love, he didn't want to ruin his image with cotton candy and pink fluffy stuff.

They opened the door; it was oddly silent except for one person sat at the other end of the corridor. Dawn looked to him and shrugged, but he didn't look to her. There was a sudden new shock that shot through her chest like a bullet.

"Is there something wrong?"

He cleared his throat as best he could then open and closed his mouth like a Goldeen.

"Paul?" The man said, standing up and walking towards them. She could feel Paul swaying backwards, as if he were about to turn and run. It felt like he wanted to do that too.

"Can I help you?" She spoke up for him, though she wanted to shout on behalf of her boyfriend's anger. His hand tensed around hers. The man looked at their hands, then to her face; "My my, Paul, you got yourself a keeper there."

She gasped a little, trying to keep her shoulders set casually; "Do we know you?"

"No." Paul spat; "You don't, and I don't want to."

"Paul, I…" The man began, it was only when he stepped under the brightest part of the light did Dawn notice what a beautiful plum colour the man's hair was. A little cry scraped past her lips that she could only just hear.

"This is my father." Paul growled, his grip tightening to such force it made her squirm.

"I err… It's nice to meet you." She gritted her teeth into a smile, trying frantically to be calmer than Paul.

The man smiled and shook her hand; "the pleasure is all mine."

"No, it's not." His son snapped; "You've had nothing to do with me and you turn up when I become champion."

"You know I didn't-"

"I don't care." Paul interrupted him, glaring up to his only parent; "You are not my family." He brushed past him and towed Dawn along, who smiled feebly over her shoulder.

The father called for him; "Paul, let me explain! You owe me that at least."

"He owes you nothing." Dawn snapped under Paul's pressure, but he continued to pull her, and she scuffed into the lights of paparazzi. She smiled as best she could, and shook his hand looser. She placed her other hand comfortingly on his shoulder; "Relax, you need to make a good impression."

"I'm relaxed," he insisted. Though he knew it was impossible to lie to her about it.

* * *

They slumped into a sofa that was fairly new; now Dawn was sixteen and Paul was close to seventeen, they were old enough to live alone; much to her mother's despair. Reggie, now twenty-three, was delighted when he found out he was getting the house to himself.

"I'm knackered." He groaned as he kicked off his trainers. As tired as he was, he still sat up and pulled off Dawn's boots for her.

She smiled; "You were brilliant." He rolled his eyes and lay back on the sofa, allowing her to lie on his chest. She lifted and turned her head to rest her chin into his rib cage so she could see his face; "So that's how it's going to be from now on?"

He knew she was talking about the cameras; "Cynthia didn't have it all the time; I guess they'll calm down soon enough." He didn't like the sound of soon, that wasn't quick enough.

"Do you think you'll ever try the grand festival?" He laughed, but she sighed. She tried the Kanto one while he challenged their elite four, neither of them successful to what they hoped, though both did extremely well. She was scared to return to Sinnoh's grand festival because of how much attention she would get for being the reason Team Galactic had been disbanded.

"I might do one day. Maybe this year's." She mused, smiling as she turned her face to the side again, running her hand along his chest until it lay under her head. Although she was emotionally exhausted, she still tingled with excitement.

"Paul…" She groaned, and he chuckled to make her head shake.

He settled after a little while then sucked in a large breath; it was relaxing to listen to the words rattle along his body.

"Do you think you'll ever go back to normal?"

She sighed and thought about it for a while; "I'm happy knowing what you feel, because I know you're happy. I'll never doubt that until you stop."

"Why?"

"Because," she paused again and sucked in a lungful of Paul-smelling air; "now I have a reason to love you, and that's to keep you happy; and I want to make you happy because I love you."

"A vicious circle," He laughed, but agreed with her too; "With a happy ending."

* * *

**Oh dear. I hate writing endings, especially when I've enjoyed writing it so so much...  
Great I'm crying, damn all of you.  
I want to thank all of you for supporting me and welcoming me so warmly to , and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!  
Thank you to all my close friends who fired inspiration at me with our random conversations, and thank you to a lot of music for pulling me from mild writers block.  
I should say that Paul, Dawn and all of the characters used are not my own, and not fully in character, because for some reason I don't think Pokémon will ever make a true ship. Stupid stupid creators. Ikarishipping would so up the ratings, right? ^^  
I guess I don't have much else to say for now, so just wait up for the epilogue and;  
Ciao. ^^**


	32. Epilogue

**Oh no, I don't think it's quite possible for me to cry over a 'fic anymore. XD**

**No sequel, I refuse to ruin this. No footer to the epilogue, I want to finish it with that finishing line. Just pure writing just for you. Thank you so so much again for all of your support, I wouldn't have continued if you hadn't have reviewed so constantly for me! **

**Oh and I guess I should apologise for the advance shipping in advance (no pun intended) because without it, this scene would so not work. **

**For those of you wondering about Cynthia and Paul, nothing happened, it was just the registering for the Hall of Fame, sorry if I confused you. ^^  
Oh and I made his father appear for the irony, he only wants Paul when he's accomplished something.**

**Okay, so;**

**Epilogue.**

I was terrified, I don't think there was such a relaxing time that I've ever felt so uptight. I couldn't do my hair, I couldn't dress myself; everything was done for me.

But I wasn't allowed any other way; this was a big day.

My hair had been set in burning rollers which pulled at the follicles of my hair in every different direction, if the outcome wasn't stunning I could have called it torture.

I had been told I was to look natural, showing the inner beauty but cleaned up at the edges. Whatever that means.

I was beyond natural though, these artists had made me a work to be proud of, I'd never seen myself so immaculate even when I'd spent hours criticising myself. My hair in ringlets hung loosely in an adorable twist so elegant and charming. My make up setting off my blue eyes and rosy cheeks, my lips painted a light natural pink rose colour.

Next was the dress, it was so intricate that I couldn't have got into it alone, I was suddenly thankful for the helper I had pulling my corset tighter.

It was beautiful, my friend was a genius, she had styled this with me in mind, I knew it. It suited me perfectly, the silver was tinted in a slight red, skirt had a slight train and my shoulders bear as the sleeves hung down my arms. They were covered only by my hair, what was left of the length from curling it, at least.

I shakily picked up my bouquet; silver and red roses intricately placed in a pattern that looked like red stars in a silver sky. Some miniature red roses were placed in the middle of some of my ringlets.

I stepped outside of my room; "How do I look?"

A stabbing pain hit my stomach to make it tense, I didn't need an answer; "Wow." Was all I got anyway. I grinned, emitting a happiness into the atmosphere as I turned down the corridor; "How's May?"

He shrugged; "It's not like I can go in there, can I?"

His hands were in his pockets like usual, but they were tense and so was his whole body; "Paul," I giggled; "You're making me nervous. It's not even my day."

He raised his eyebrow; "_your _day."

I knew he was picking at my words literally, so I protested; "No, it's May's day."

Yes, her day, and I was so happy for her. After that mess up 5 years ago, I wasn't sure I'd ever see her be fixed from that horrific state she was in. I guess my pulling through it and making up with Paul gave her the drive to do it herself.

An elegantly dressed red head came up to me; "You're Dawn, right?" Her dress was similar to mine, but was one sleeved and the skirt was simple without a train. It fitted her boyish frame to show off what curves she had, I assumed the corset had something to do with that.

I nodded, this must be Misty, I'd heard a lot about her from both Brock and Ash. "Pleased to meet you!" She hugged me; she obviously saw the recognition in my eyes because she didn't feel the need to introduce herself.

"Come on; let's go see how May is doing." She took my hand excitedly and dragged me towards the room. She treated me like we'd known each other for years. I shot a smile in Paul's direction and felt him stop breathing a second; it was very confidence-boosting to know how someone reacted to your presence. It was also reassuring that he was returning such a miraculous amount of adoration that I had for him.

We knocked quietly yet rapidly together, both bursting to see the blushing bride. A pink haired woman in a smart looking dress answered, and grinned at us; "She was just about to come and get you." She stepped aside and we both gasped for a good half a dozen seconds.

"May… You look…" I couldn't find the word, stunning just didn't cut it.

"…Overwhelmingly astonishing." Misty covered for me; that seemed a little closer to my opinion, she would astonish people, she was certainly going to give her husband-to-be a mini heart attack.

"I need to borrow something!" May fretted, her silly superstitions, but I knew what to give her. I rooted through my bag and pulled out a piece of silver covered in sparkling clear gems. She smiled as soon as she saw it, she had given it me back a long time ago now; my brooch.

"Thank you Dawn." She welled up, it must be an emotional time for her, and me giving off such a happy atmosphere can't have been helping.

"Don't cry!" The pink haired girl scolded, "your make-up will run!"

May panted as she waved her hands in front of her eyes, whispering 'okay' repeatedly as I pinned the brooch right in the middle of the ruffle of her skirt at the side of her waist.

She had once promised to give it me back when I was happy, and now I was doing that in return, her life was whole again, she was more than happy to receive a badge for the first time ever.

"This is Soledad, Dawn." May introduced us, Misty must already know her. I smiled, but she was too busy placing the veil right just over May's beautifully shaped hair.

"Pleased to meet you." She said once satisfied. I muttered a 'likewise' as I continued to stare at May; "Okay, I'm slightly envious, is that bad?" I giggled, and the others laughed too.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Misty grinned, though she looked very pretty too, her long golden-red hair was curled up in a similar style to mine and her bouquet was red with the odd silver rose. Soledad changed into one the same as Misty's. Why do I look different?

"Dawn, I want you to be my Maid of honour."

Wow, that was a shocker; "Why did you tell me _now?!" _I complained, but she winked; "Because I knew you'd protest."

True; "May, don't you have to be married-"

"Or engaged," Soledad added,

"-to be Maid of Honour?" I completed my sentence, flashing a smile in Soledad's direction. May waved her hand; "Whoever cared about the rules, this is my wedding, right?"

That was not a May line, she stuck to the rules without thinking of the consequences, she'd rather not risk being disqualified in many cases, so why would she push her luck in such a big step of her life? I didn't doubt her though, it _was_ her day, I could ask questions later. Instead I hugged her – carefully – and thanked her.

There was a knock on the door; "Five minutes." Paul's voice growled softly through the wood. May squealed in horror; "I'm so scared!"

We all pandered to her continuously for those five minutes, and then took off for the ceremony.

We waited for their arrival in their Rapidash-drawn carriage, and began throwing rice into the air as they walked down a white marble pathway into the rooftop after party.

"You look beautiful by the way." I got a whisper from behind me, and I spun around. I honestly didn't recognise the voice for a second, I'd been speaking to so many people that his voice was a blessing. I didn't have to say much, we just… Knew.

"Thank you." I shouted over the crowds in a whispered tone.

He felt weird; I couldn't put my finger on this emotion. It was almost like he was angry at being happy, I couldn't understand it. There was definitely a strong feeling of excitement and happiness, but it was like he was trying to box it up and hide it away in punishment. Maybe he was just happy for Ash and didn't want to show it.

"I get the first dance with you, right?"

I rose an eyebrow; "With _your_ smooth moves? I'm afraid you might show me up!"

"I'm not one to show off…" He smirked, and I scoffed; "You're the biggest show off I know." Wrong, I'd known one much bigger than him before he attempted to ruin this amazing relationship. I should forgive him really, for in the long run; I could see that it had strengthened us.

"Yeah but I can show you off, right?"

I rolled my eyes and tapped at his nose; "I love you too."

I lifted onto my tiptoes, it was much more of a stretch now than ever, he'd grown a lot more in his later teens and I hadn't at all. He towered above me like a Gallade and a Ralts, and so he had to lean down a lot of the way to reach my lips. His mouth was like a burning flame that tingled my lips without the after pain that a flame would give. I still get Goosebumps at his touch, my spine shivers when we kiss and my eyes stream when we're overwhelmed with passion for each other. I don't think I could ever get used to love so strong like this. I didn't want to either; I wanted to stay like a new couple forever, to never let it grow old and boring.

He ran his hand around my waist; I shivered gently but slunk into his strong arms and carefully placed my head on his shoulder.

We walked into the elevator together, and stayed silent as we ascended, just listening to his soft breathing comforted me so much. I knew I wouldn't be able to hear it again for the rest of the night, the music was already playing and I could hear it from halfway up the building.

The doors slid open, and he led me out as I explored with my eyes. Everything was dainty and fairytale-like; so many lights from hundreds of Volbeat flitted around in the setting sunlight. The stars were already peeping through the clouds as they drifted on by to give us a clear night. The floor carpeted in a light blue in some areas, and marble flooring in the middle of the roof. Water-fountains scattered around trickled continuously and one large on at the end of the roof with Goldeen swimming elegantly.

"And you call me a show off." Paul breathed, taking in the scenery too. It was breath-takingly romantic; I wanted to dance on the floor now if we didn't have to wait for speeches.

Naturally, Norman; May's father began, saying how he knew these two were perfect company for each other the moment Ash offered to look after her and her stubborn ways. We all laughed as he brought up some story that they had shared with him and how he reacted when he heard what they'd been up to in their travels. Diving into sea temples and climbing dangerous trees full of human anti-bodies. Then he went on to say how he couldn't be more satisfied in a son-in-law if he can keep her safe from Pokémon we couldn't have dreamt of existing.

Max went next, saying how proud he was to have travelled with them and all the great experiences they shared, and that he couldn't think of a more perfect couple. Brock's speech was likewise. I just thanked heavens I didn't have to say one, because everything had already been said!

As Maid of Honour, I was to be the second to dance on the marble flooring, alongside Brock and his date of whom I did not know, but she was very beautiful with thick long black hair and large pointed feline-like eyes.

My heart was suddenly pounding, and my pulse began to race too; "What's wrong?" I asked as Paul pulled me to take lead, spinning me along the floor gracefully. I barely had to do anything but hold myself standing and move my feet so I didn't trip. He shook his head and pulled me even closer so I could rest my head on his shoulder. I faced out from him so I could watch my two friends do similarly.

"Dawn, can I ask you something?"

The 'cage' had been opened; I had never felt enthusiasm from him like this before, not even for battles. The music quietened suddenly and Ash and May stopped to look at us.

I glanced up at May who was brimming with tears, and Ash was forcing as much of a genuine smile as possible; he never did get over his anger entirely for Paul, he'd been scarred with a competitiveness for him, and he wasn't capable of fully getting over it. He had told me he was happy for me, and that he was trying, but that's all I could really ask for.

I lifted my head to frown at Paul, and he carefully lowered himself in front of me, keeping my hands in his tightly.

It took me a moment to sink in, I just stared blankly at his face, the only question running through my head being; 'What on earth is he doing?'

And then the tidal wave of his emotion struck me forcefully, that plus my own tsunami of happiness was too much to handle, the waves came flooding down my face. I was confused, the twist in my stomach was making me wish I hadn't have eaten. The rosiness in my cheeks flushed darker under the spotlight of many eyes, including his jet black ones daggering at me with such gentleness it almost hurt, made me want to cry 'just get it over with.'

But it wasn't the truth, this moment was filled with such a joy that a blubbered an 'Oh my gosh' through my tears that I heard him laugh nervously.

"Dawn, You have already made me as happy as I ever can be." He choked, taking a couple of seconds to clear his throat; I waited patiently as his warm hands sent my fingers numb.

He sighed and continued, suddenly fully aware of the room staring at him; "And I want to make you just as happy, I want to keep you forever and you to have me for just as long." He paused again, clearly uncomfortable for the stereotypical line; "Will you marry me, please?" The plea made me laugh through my cries, and I couldn't hold my legs up any longer.

I realised why I was able to be Maid of honour for May so suddenly, Paul had it planned to tell me now and asked her permission.

He didn't have to stand up fully before I was hiding my face into his shoulder, clutching the collar on his shirt and sobbing whole heartedly.

"Yes, yes, I will." I blurted happily, I couldn't register the round of applause erupting around us, the cries of May squealing in delight. We were in a room alone in my eyes; I couldn't see anything but the blackness of his shoulder so close to my eyes. All I could feel were his arms shaking around my hand as he slid a thin banded ring around my finger encrusted with beautiful, tiny light blue and purple gems, they sparkled into my eyes and refracted through my tears, I couldn't focus on anything but him; the only smell was his beautiful clean hair. All I could hear was his heart beating with mine, and his beautiful calming breaths as he whispered his thanks to me, so grateful that I was happy to be his trophy without objection.

For I would forever be his trophy, if he were there to hold it.


End file.
